
Class _I1MA1 
Book_iiLlB-i_ 



^ ^ IN THE LIFE OF 

MATTHEW HALE: 

EXHIBITING *" J Q "3 

HIS MORAL AJ'rD RELIGIOUS CHARACTER, * 



By gilbert BURNET, D. D. 

AUTHOR OF A HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 






Revised^ American Edition. 



BOSTON : - ir:^^^ 

PUBLISHED BY JAMES LORING^ 

Sabbath School Bookstore, 132 Washington Street. 



1832. 



^t-i'; ^ '^•■'•1 







M 4-4-1 



Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1832, 

BY JAM£S LORING, 

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Massachusetts, 



//J'a 



PREFACE. 



No part of history is more instructive and delighting 
than the hves of great and worthy men : the shortness 
of them invites many readers; and there are such httle 
and yet remarkable passages in them, too inconsiderable 
to be put in a general history of the age in which they 
lived, that all people are very desirous to know them. 

This short history will contain in it as great a char- 
acter, as perhaps can be given of any in this age, since 
there are few instances of more knowledge and greater 
virtues meeting in one person. I was upon one 
account, besides many more, unfit to undertake it, 
because I was not at all known to him ; so I can say 
nothing from my own observation. But I do not know 
whether this may not qualify me to write more impar- 
tially, though perhaps more defectively ; for the know- 
ledge of extraordinary persons does most commonly 
bias those who were much wrought on by the tenderness 
of their friendship for them, to raise their style a little 
too high when they write concerning them. I confess 
I knew him as much as the looking often upon him 
could amount to. The last year of his being in London, 
he came always on Sundays, when he could go abroad, 
to the chapel of the Rolls, where I then preached. In 
my life I nearer saw so much gravity, tempered with 
that sweetness, and set off with so much vivacity, as 
appeared in his looks and behaviour, which disposed 
me to a veneration for lum, which I never had for any 
with whom I was not acquainted. I was seeking an 
opportunity of being admitted to his conversation ; but 
I understood that, between a great want of health, and 
a multiplicity of business, which his employment 



PREFACE. 

brought upon him, he was master of so little of his time, 
that I stood in doubt whether I might presume to rob 
him of any of it ; and so he left the town before I could 
resolve on being known to him. 

The occasion of my undertaking this work was given 
me by the earnest desires of some that have great power 
over me, who, having been much obliged by him, and 
holding his memory in high estimation, thought I might 
do it some justice by writing his life. I was then en-^ 
gaged in the History of the Reformation, sol promised 
that, as soon as that was over, I would make the best 
use I could of such informations and memorials as 
should be brought me. 

This I have now performed in the best manner 1 
could, and have brought into method all the parcels of 
his life, or the branches of his character, which I could 
eilher gather from the informations that were brought 
me, or from those that were familiarly acquainted with 
him, or from his writings. I have not applied any of 
the false colours with which art, or some forced elo- 
quence might furnish me in writing concerning him ; 
but have endeavoured to set him out in the same sim- 
plicity in which he lived. I have said little of his do- 
mestic concerns, since though in these he was a great 
example, yet it signifies nothing to the world, to know 
any particular exercises that might be given to his pa- 
tience, and therefore I shall draw a veil over all these, 
and shall avoid saying any thing of him but what may 
afford the reader some profitable instruction. I am 
under no temptations of saying any thing but what I 
am persuaded is exactly true ; for where there is so 
much expellent truth to be told, it were an inexcuseable 
fault to corrupt that, or prejudice the reader against it, 
by the mixture of falsehoods with it. 

As he was a great example while he lived, so I wish 
the setting him thus out to posterity, in his own true 
and native colours, may have its due influence on all 
persons ; but more particularly on those of that profes- 
sion whom it more immediately concerns, whether on 
the bench or at the bar. 



THE LITE OF 



Bill MATTHEW HALE. 



CHAPTER I. 

HIS BIRTH AND ANCESTRY .... HIS EARLY 
CHARACTER. 

Matthew Hale was born at Alderley in 
Gloucestershire, Eng. the 1st of November, 1609. 
His grandfather was Robert Hale, an eminent 
clothier at Wotton-under-Edge, in that county, 
where he and his ancestors had lived for 
many generations ; and they had given several 
parcels of land for the use of the poor, which 
are enjoyed by them to this day. This Robert 
acquired an estate of ten thousand pounds, 
which he divided almost equally amongst his 
five sons, besides the portions he gave his 
daughters, from whom a numerous posterity 
has sprung. His second son was Robert Hale, 
a barrister of Lincoln's-inn ; he married Joan, 
the daughter of Matthew Poyntz, Esq. of Aider- 
ley, who was descended from that noble family 
2 



10 



MATTHEW HALE. 



of the Poynlz's of Acton. Of this marriage 
there was no other issue but this one son. His 
grandfather, by his mother, gave him his ow» 
name. His father was a man of that strict- 
ness of conscience, that he gave over the prac- 
tice of the laWy because he could not understand' 
the reason of giving colour in pleadings, which, 
as he thought, was to tell a lie ; and that, with 
some other things commonly practised, seemed 
to him contrary to that exactness of truth and 
justice which became a Christian ; so that he 
withdrew liimself from the inns of court to live 
on his estate in the country. Of this I was 
informed by an ancient gentleman that lived 
in a friendship with his son for fifty years, and 
he heard Judge Jones, xyYio was Mr. Hale's 
contemporary, declare this in the King's Bench. 
But as the care he had to save his soul made 
him abandon a profession in which he might 
have raised his family much higher, so his- 
charity to his yxjor neighbours made him not 
only deal his alms largely among them while 
he lived, but at his death, in 1614, he left 
out of his small estate, which was but lOOL 
a year, 201 a year to the poor of Wotton,. 
which his son confirmed to them with some 
addition, and with this regulation, that it 
should be distributed among such poor house- 
keepers as did not receive the alms of the 
parish ; for to give it to those, was only, a& 
he used to say, to save so much money to the 
rich, who by law were hound to relieve the 
poor of the parish. 

Thus he was deiscended rather from a good 



MATTHEW HALE. 11 

tlian a noble family ; and yet what was v/anting 
in the insignificant titles of high birth and noble 
blood, was more than made up in the true worth 
of his ancestors. But he was soon deprived of 
the happiness of his father's care and instruction, 
for as he lost his mother before he was three 
years old, so his father died before he v/as five ; 
so early was he cast on the providence of God. 
But that unhappiness was in a great measure 
made up to him : for after some opposition made 
by Mr. Thomas Poyntz, his uncle by his 
mother, he was committed to the care of 
Anthony Kingscot, Esq. of Kingscot, who was 
his next kinsman after his uncles by his mother. 
Great care was taken of his education, and 
his guardian intended to educate him to be a 
divine, and being inclined to the way of those 
then called Puritans, put him to some schools 
that were taught by those of that party, and in 
1626, in the seventeenth year of his age, sent 
him to Magdalen Hall in Oxford, where Oba- 
diah Sedgwick was his tutor. He was an 
extraordinary proficient at school, and for some 
time at Oxford ; but the stage-players coming 
thither, he was so much corrupted by seeing 
many plays, that he almost wholly forsook his 
studies. By this he not only lost much time, 
but found that his head came to be thereby 
filled with such vain images of things, that they 
were at best unprofitable, if not hurtful to him ; 
and being afterwards sensible of the mischief 
of this, he resolved, upon his coming to London, 
where he knew the opportunities of such sights 



12 MATTHEW HALE. 

would be more frequent and inviting, never tasee 
a play again ; to whicli ho constantly adhered. 
The corruption of a young man's mind in 
one particular, generally draws on a great many 
more after it ; so he being now taken off from 
following his studies, and from the gravity of 
his deportment, that was formerly eminent in 
him far beyond his years, set himself to many 
of the vanities incident to youth ; but still pre- 
served his purity, and a great probity of mind. 
He loved fine clothes, and delighted much in 
company ; and being of a strong, robust body, 
he was a great master at all those exercises that 
required much strength. He also learned to 
fence, and handle his weapons, in which he 
became so expert, that he worsted many of the 
masters of those arts : but as he was exercising 
himself in them, an instance appeared that 
showed a good judgment, and gave some hopes 
of better things. One of his masters told him 
he could teach him no more, for he was now 
better at his own trade than himself was. This 
Mr. Hale looked on as flattery ; so, to make 
the master discover himself, he promised him 
the house he lived in, for he was his tenant, if 
he would hit him a blow on the head ; and bade 
him do his best, for he would be as good as his 
word : so after a little engagement, his master, 
being really superior to him, hit him on the 
head, and he performed his promise, for he gave 
him the house freely; and was not unwilling at 
that rate to learn so early to distinguish flattery 
from plain and simple truth. 

He was now so taken up with martial matters, 



MATTHEW HALE. 



13 



tliat, instead of going on in his design of being 
a scholar or a divine, he resolved to be a soldier ; 
and his tutor Sedgwick going into the Low 
Countries, chaplain to the renowned lord Vere, 
he resolved to go along with him, and to trail a 
pike in the Prince of Orange's army ; but a 
happy stop was put to this resolution, which 
might have proved so fatal to himself, and have 
deprived the age of the great example he gave, 
and the useful services he afterwards did his 
country. He was engaged in a suit of law with 
Sir William Whitmore, who laid claim to some 
part of his estate; and his guardian being a 
man of a retired temper, and not made for 
business, he was forced to leave the university, 
after he had been three years in it, and go to 
London to solicit his own business, being recom- 
mended for the purpose to serjeantGlanvil for his 
counsellor; and he, observing in him a clear 
apprehension of things, and a solid judgment, 
and a great fitness for the study of the law, 
took pains upon him to persuade him to forsake 
his thoughts of being a soldier, and to apply 
himself to the study of the law : and this had so 
good an effect on him, that on the Sth of No- 
vember, 1629, when he was past the twentieth 
year of his age, he was admitted into Lincoln's- 
inn ; and befng then deeply sensible how much 
time he had lost, and that idle and vain things 
had overrun and almost corrupted his mind, he 
resolved to redeem the time he had lost, and 
followed his studies with a diligence that could 
scarcely be believed, if the signal effects of it 
did not gain it credit. He studied for many 
2* 



14 MATTHEW HALE. 

years at the rate of sixteen liours a day : he 
threw aside all fine clothes, and betook himself 
to a plain fashion, which he continued to use, 
in many points, to his dying day. 

But since the honour of reclaiming him from 
the idleness of his former course of life is due 
to the memory of that eminent lawyer, serjeant 
Glenvil, and since my design in writing is to 
propose a pattern of heroic virtue to the world, 
I shall mention one passage of the serjeant 
which ought never to be forgotten. His father 
had a fair estate, which he intended to settle on 
his elder brother ; but he being a vicious young 
man, and there appearing no hope of his recov- 
ery, he settled it on him, that was his second 
son. Upon his death, his eldest son, finding 
that what he had before looked on as the threat- 
enings of an angry father, was now but too 
certain, became melancholy, and that by degrees 
wrought so great a change on him, that what 
his father could not prevail in while he lived, 
was now effected by the severity of his last will, 
so that it was now too late for him to change in 
hopes of an estate that was gone from him. 
But his brother, observing the reality of the 
change, resolved within himself what to do : so 
he called him with many of his friends together 
to a feast, and after other dishes had been 
served up to the dinner, he ordered one that 
was covered to be set before his brother, and 
desired him to uncover it ; which he doing, the 
company were surprised to find it full of writings. 
So he told them, that he was now to do what 
he was sure hi.^ father would have done, if he 



MATTHEW HALE. 15 

liad lived to see tliat happy change which they 
now all saw in his brother ; and therefore he 
freely restored to him the whole estate. This 
is so great an instance of a generous and just 
disposition, that I hope the reader will easily 
pardon this digression, and that the rather since 
that worthy serjeant was so instrumental in the 
happy change that followed in the course of 
Mr. Hale's life. 

Yet Mr. Hale did not at first break off from 
keeping too much company with vain people, till 
a sad accident drove him from it; for he, with 
some other young students, being invited to be 
merry out of town, one of the company called 
for so much wine, that notwithstanding all that 
Mr. Hale could do to prevent it, his friend went 
on in his excess till he fell down as dead before 
them, so that all that were present were not a 
little affrighted at it, who did what they could 
to bring him to himself again. This did partic- 
ularly aflect Mr. Hale, who thereupon went 
into another room, and, shutting the door, fell 
on his knees, and prayed earnestly to God, both 
for his friend that he might be restored to life 
again, and that himself might be forgiven for 
giving such countenance to so much excess : 
and he vowed to God, that he would never 
again keep company in that manner, nor drink 
a health while he lived. His friend recovered, 
and he most religiously observed his vow till 
his dying day. And though he was afterwards 
pressed to drink healths, particularly the king's, 
which was set up by too many as a distinguish- 
ing mark of loyalty, and drew many into great 



16 MATTHEW HALE. 

excess after his majesty's happy restoration : 
yet he would never dispense with his vow, 
though he was sometimes roughly treated for 
this, which some hot and indiscreet men called 
obstinacy. 

This wrought an entire change on him. 
Now he forsook all vain company, and divided 
himself between the duties of religion and the 
studies of his profession ; in the former he was 
so regular, that for six and thirty years' time he 
never once failed going to church on the Lord's- 
day : this observation he made when an ague 
first interrupted that constant course ; and he 
reflected on it, as an acknowledgment of God's 
great goodness to him, in so long a continuance 
of his health. 

He took a strict account of his time, of which 
the reader will best judge by the scheme he 
drew for a diary, which I shall insert, copied 
from the original ; but I am not certain when 
he made it. It is set down in the same sim- 
plicity in which he wrote it for his own private 
use. 

MORNING. 

I. To lift up the heart to God in thankfulness for renewing 

my life. 

II. To renew my covenant with God in Christ. 1. By renewed 

acts of faith receiving Christ, and rejoicing in the height of 
that relation. 2. Resolution of being one of his people, 
doing him allegiance. 

III. Adoration and prayer. 

IV. Setting a watch over my own infirmities and passions, over 

the snares laid in our way. We perish through our lusts. 

DAY EMPLOYMENT. 

There must be an employment, two kinds. 
I. Our ordinary calling, to serve God in it. It is a service to 
Christ, though never so mean — Coloss. .3. Here faithful- 
ness, diligence, cheerfulness. Not to overlay myself with 
more business than I can bear. 



MATTHEW HALE. 17 

II. Our spiritual employments: mingle somewhat of (iod's 
immediate service in tliis day. 

REFRESHMENTS. 

T. Meat and drink, moderation seasoned vvilh somewhat of God. 
II. Recreations. 1. Not our business. 2. Suitable. No games, 
if given to covetousness or passion. 

IF ALONE. 

r. Beware of wandering, vain, lustful thoughts ; fly from thyself 
ratlier than entertain these. 

II. Let tliy solitary thoughts he profitable ; view the evidences of 
tliy salvation, the state of thy soul, the couiing of Christ, 
thy own mortality; it will make thee humble and watchful. 

COMPANY. 

Do good to them. Use (iod's name reverently. Beware of 
leaving an ill impression of ill example. Receive good 
from them, if more knowing. 

EVENING. 

Cast up the accounts of the day. If aught amiss, beg pardon. 
Gather resolution of more vigilance. If well, bless the 
mercy and grace of God that hath supported thee. 

These notes have an imperfection in the 
wording of them, which shows they were only 
intended for his privacies. No wonder a man 
who set such rules to himself, became quickly 
very eminent and remarkable. 

Noy, the attorney-general, being then one of 
the greatest men of the profession, took early 
notice of him, and called often for him, and 
directed him in his study, and grew to have 
such friendship for him, that he came to be 
called " Young Noy." He, passing from the 
extreme of vanity in his apparel, to that of 
neglecting himself too much, was once taken 
when there was a press for the king's service, 
as a fit person for it ; for he was a strong and 
well built man. But some that knew him 
coming by, and giving notice who he was, the 
press-men let him go. This made him return 



18 MATTHEW HALE. 

to more carefulness in his clothes, but never to 
any superfluity or vanity in them. 

Once, as he was buying some cloth for a new 
suit, the draper with whom he differed about 
the price, told him he should have it for nothing, 
if he would promise him a hundred pounds 
when he came to be lord chief justice of Eng- 
land ; to which he answered, " That he could 
not with a good conscience wear any man's 
cloth unless he paid for it;" so he satisfied the 
draper, and carried away the cloth. Yet that 
same draper lived to see him advanced to that 
same dignity. 

While he was thus improving himself in the 
study of the law, he not only kept the hours of 
the hall constantly in term time, but seldom put 
himself out of commons in vacation time, and 
continued then to follow his studies with an 
unwearied diligence ; and, not being satisfied 
with the books written about it, or to take things 
upon trust, was very diligent in searching all 
records. Then did he make divers collections 
out of the books he had read, and, mixing them 
with his own observations, digested them into a 
common-place book ; which he did with so 
much industry and judgment, that an eminent 
judge of the king's bench borrowed it of him 
when he was lord chief baron. He unwillingly 
lent it, because it had been written by him 
before he was called to the bar, and had never 
been thoroughly revised by him since that time ; 
only what alterations had been m.ade in the law 
by subsequent statutes and judgments, were 
added by him as they had happened ; but the 



MATTHEW HALE. . 19 

judge having perused it, said, that though it was 
composed by him so early, he did not think any 
lawyer in England could do it better, except he 
himself would again set about it. 



CHAPTER II. 

SIR MATTHEW HALE's I.OVE OF LEARNING .... HIS 
RELIGIOUS KNOWLEDGE ....HIS APPOINTMENT AS 
JUDGE OF COMMON PLEAS, UNDER CROMWELLr 

He was soon found out by that great and 
learned antiquiiry, Mr. Selden, who, though 
much superior to him in years, yet came to have 
such a liking for him, and of Mr. Vaughan, who 
was afterwards lord chief justice of the Common 
Pleas, that as he continued in a close friendship 
with them while he lived, so he left them, at 
his death, two of his four executors. 

It was this acquaintance that first set Mr. 
Hale on a more enlarged pursuit of learning, 
which he had before confined to his own pro- 
fession ; but, becoming as great a master in it 
as ever any was, very soon, he who could never 
let any of his time go away unprofitably, found 
leisure to attain to as great a variety of knowl- 
edge in as comprehensive a manner as most 
men have done in any age. 

He set liimself much to the study of the 



20 ' MATTHEW HALE. 

Roman law, and tliough he liked the way of 
judicature in England by juries much better 
than that of the civil law, where so much was 
trusted to the judge, yet he often said, that the 
true grounds and reasons of law were so well 
delivered in the Digests, that a man could never 
understand law as a science so well as by seek- 
ing it there, and therefore lamented much that 
it was so little studied in England. 

He looked on readiness in arithmetic as a 
thing which might be useful to him in his own 
employment ; and acquired it to such a degree, 
that he w^ould often on a sudden, and afterwards 
on the bench, resolve very hard questions, which 
had puzzled the best accountants about town. 
He rested not here, but studied the algebra 
both speciosa and numerosa, and went through 
all the other mathematical sciences, and made 
a great collection of very excellent instruments, 
sparing no cost to have them as exact as art 
could make them. He was also very conversant 
in philosophical learning, and in all tlie curious 
experiments and rare discoveries of this age : 
and had the new books written on those subjects 
sent him from all parts, which he both read and 
examined so critically, that if the principles and 
hypotheses which he took first up did any way 
prepossess him, yet those who have differed 
most from him have acknowledged, that in what 
he has written concerning the Torricellian 
experiment, and of the rarefaction and conden- 
sation of the air, he sliows as great an exactness, 
and as much subtilty in the reasoning he builds 
on them, as those principles to which he ad- 



MATTHEW HALE. 21 

hered could bear. But indeed it will seem 
scarcely credible, that a man so much employed, 
and of so severe a temper of mind, could find 
leisure to read, observe, and write so much of 
these subjects as he did. He called them his 
diversions ; for he often said, when he was 
weary with the study of the law or divinity, he 
used to recreate himself with philosophy or the 
mathematics. To these he added great, skill in 
physic, anatomy, and chirurgery. And he used 
to say, no man could be absolutely a master in 
any profession, without having some skill in other 
sciences ; for besides the satisfaction he had in 
the knowledge of these things, he made use of 
them often in his employments. In some exam- 
inations he would put such questions to physi- 
cians or chirurgeons, that they have professed 
the College of Physicians could not do it more 
exactly; by which he discovered great judgment 
as well as much knowledge in these things. And 
in his sickness he used to argue with his doctors 
about his distempers, and the methods they took 
with them, like one of their own profession ; 
which one of them told me he understood, as 
far as speculation without practice could carry 
him. 

To this he added great searches into ancient 
history, and particularly into the roughest and 
least delightful part of it, chronology. He was 
well acquainted with the ancient Greek philos- 
ophers; but want of occasion to use it wore out 
his knowledge of the Greek tongue ; and though 
he never studied the Hebrew tongue, yet by his 
great conversation with Selden, he understood 



22 MATTHEW HALE. 

the most curious things in the Rabbinical 
learning. 

But above all these, he seemed to have made 
the study of divinity the chief of all others, to 
which he not only directed every thing else, but 
also arrived at that pitch in it, that those who 
have read what he has written on these subjects, 
will think they must have had most of his time 
and thoughts. It may seem extravagjint, and 
almost incredible, that one man in no great 
compass of years should have acquired such a 
variety of knowledge, and that in sciences which 
require much leisure and application. But as 
his parts were quick and his apprehensions 
lively, his memory great and his judgment strong, 
so his industry was almost indefatigable. He 
rose always betimes in the morning, was never 
idle, scarcely ever held any discourse about 
news, except with some few in whom he confided 
entirely. He entered into no correspondence 
by letters, except about necessary business, or 
matters of learning, and spent very little time 
in eating and drinking ; for as he never went 
to public feasts, so he gave no entertainments 
but to the poor ; for he followed our Saviour's 
direction, of feasting none but these, literally : 
and in eating and drinking, he observed not 
only great plainness and moderation, but lived 
so philosophically, that he always ended his meal 
with an appetite ; so that he lost little time at it 
(that being the only portion which he grudged 
himself), and was disposed to any exercise of 
his mind to which he thought fit to apply him- 
self, immediately after he had dined. By these 



MATTHEW HALE. 23 

means he gained much time, that is otherwise 
unprofitably wasted. 

He liad also an admirable equality in the 
temper of his mind, which disposed him for 
whatever studies he thought fit to turn himself 
to ; and some very uneasy things which he lay 
under for many years, did rather engage him to, 
than distract him from, his studies. 

When he was called to the bar, and began to 
make a figure in the world, the late unhappy 
wars broke out, in which it was no easy thing 
for a man to preserve his integrity, and to live 
securely, free from great danger and trouble. 
He had read the life of Pomponius Atticus, 
written by Nepos ; and having observed, that he 
had passed through a time of as much distraction, 
as ever was in any age or state, from the wars 
of Marius and Sylla to the beginning of Augus- 
tus's reign, without the least blemish on his 
reputation, and free from any considerable dan- 
ger, being held in great esteem by all parties, 
and courted and favoured by them, he set him 
as a pattern to himself: and observing, that, 
besides those virtues vvhich are necessary to all 
men, and at all times, there were two things 
that chiefly preserved Atticus ; the one was his 
engaging in no faction, and meddling in no 
public business ; the other was his constant 
favouring and relieving those that were lowest, 
which was ascribed by such as prevailed to the 
generosity of his temper, and procured him 
much kindness from those on whom he had 
exercised his bounty, when it came to their 
turn to govern ; he resolved to guide himself 



24 MATTHEW HALE. 

by those rules as much as was possible for him 
to do. 

He not only avoided all public employment, 
but the very talking of news, and was always 
both favourable and charitable to those who 
were depressed, and was sure never to provoke 
any in particular, by censuring or reflecting on 
their actions ; for many that have conversed 
much with him, have told me they never heard 
him once speak ill of any person. 

He was employed in his practice by all the 
king's party : he was assigned counsel to the 
Earl of Strafford, and Arciibishop Laud, and 
afterwards to the accused King himself, when 
brought to the infamous pageantry of a mock 
trial, and offered to plead for him with all the 
courage that so glorious a cause ought to have 
inspired him with, but was not suffered to appear, 
because, the King refusing, as he had good 
reason, to submit to the court, it was pretended 
none could be admitted to speak for him. He 
was also counsel for the Duke of Hamilton, the 
Earl of Holland, and the Lord Capel : his plea 
for the former of these is published in the 
memoirs of that duke's life. Afterwards also 
being counsel for the lord Craven, he pleaded 
with that force of argument, that the then 
attorney-general threatened him for appearing 
against the government : to whom he answered, 
he was pleading in defence of those laws which 
they declared they would maintain and pre- 
serve, and he was doing his duty to his client, 
so that he was not to be daunted with threat- 
eninsrs. 



,5 

I 



MATTHEW HALE. 25 

Upon all these occasions he had discharged 
himself with so much learning, fidelity, and 
courage, that he came to be generally employed 
for all that party ; nor was he satisfied to appear 
for their just defence in the way of his profes- 
sion, but he also relieved them often in their 
necessities ; which he did in a way that was no 
less prudent and charitable, considering the 
dangers of that time : for he did often deposit 
considerable sums in the hands of a worthy 
gentleman of the King's party, who knew their 
necessities well, and was to distribute his charity 
according to his own discretion, without either 
letting them know from whence it came, or 
giving himself any account to whom he had 
given it. 

Cromwell seeing him possessed of so much 
practice, and he being one of the most eminent 
men of the law, who was not at all afraid of 
doing his duty in those critical times, resolved 
to take him off from it, and raise him to the 
bench. 

Mr. Hale saw well enough the snare laid for 
him, and though he did not much consider the 
prejudice it would be to himself, to exchange 
the easy and safe profits he had by his practice, 
for a judge's place in the Common Pleas, which 
he was required to accept of, yet he did deliber- 
ate more on the lawfulness of taking a commis- 
sion from Cromwell ; but, having considered 
well of this, he came to be of opinion, that it 
being absolutely necessary to have justice and 
property kept up at all times, it was no 
sin to take the commission, if he made no 
3* 



26 MATTHEW HALE. 

declaration of his acknowledging the authority, 
whicli he never did. He was much urged to 
accept it by some eminent men of his own pro- 
fession, who were of tlie King's party, as Sir 
Orlando Bridgeman, and Sir Geoffrey Palmer ; 
and was also satisfied concerning the lawfulness 
of it, by the resolution of some famous divines,, 
in particular Dr. Sheldon, and Dr. Henchman, 
who were afterwards promoted to the sees of 
Canterbury and London. 

To these were added the importunities of alt 
his friends, who thought that, in a time of so 
much danger and oppression, it might be no 
small security to the nation, to have a man of 
his integrity and abilities on the bench : and 
the rulers themselves held him in that esti- 
mation, that they were glad to have him give a 
countenance to their courts ; and, by promoting 
one that was known to have different principles 
from them, affected the reputation of honouring 
and trusting men of eminent virtues, of what 
persuasion soever they might be in relation to 
public matters. 

But he had greater scruples concerning the 
proceeding against felons, and putting offenders 
to death by that commission, since he thought, 
the sword of justice belonging only by right to 
the lawful prince, it seemed not warrantable to 
proceed to a capital sentence by an authority 
not thus derived ; yet at first he made the 
distinction between common and ordinary felo- 
nies, and offences against the state. For the last, 
he would never meddle in them ; for he thought 
these might be often legal and warrantable 



MATTHEW HALE. 27 

actions, and that the putting men to death on 
that account was murder ; but for the ordinary- 
felonies, he at first was of opinion that it was as 
necessary even in times of usurpation to execute 
justice in those cases, as in the matters of prop- 
erty. But after the king was murdered, he laid 
by all his collections of the pleas of the crown ; 
and that they might not fall into ill hands, he 
hid them behind the wainscotting of his study, 
for he said there was no more occasion to use 
them, till the king should be again restored to 
his right : and so upon his majesty's restoration 
he took them out, and went on in his design to 
perfect that great work. 

Yet for some time after he was made a judge, 
when he went the circuit, he did sit on the 
crown side, and judged criminals ; but having 
considered further of it, he came to think that 
it was at least better not to do it ; and so after 
the second or third circuit, he refused to sit any 
more on the crown side, and told plainly the 
reason ; for in matters of blood he was always to 
choose the safer side. And indeed he had so 
carried himself in some trials, that they were 
not unwilling he should withdraw from meddling 
further in them, of which I shall give some 
instances. 

Not long after he was made a judge, which 
was in the year 1653, when he went the circuit, 
a trial was brought before him at Lincoln, con- 
cerning the murder of one of the townsmen, 
who had been of the King's party, and was 
killed by a soldier of the garrison there. He 
was in the fields with a fowling-piece on his 



28 MATTHEW HALE. 

shoulder, which the soldier seeing, he came to 
him, and said, it was contrary to an order which 
the Protector had made, That none who had 
been of the king's party should carry arms, and 
so he would have forced it from him ; but as 
the other did not regard the order, so being 
stronger than the soldier he threw him down, 
and having beaten him, ho left him. The soldier 
went into the town, and told one of his fellow- 
soldiers how he had been used, and got him to 
go with him, and lie in wait for the man, that 
he might be revenged on him. They both 
ivatched him coming to town, and one of them 
went to him to demand his gun, which he re- 
fusing, the soldier struck at him ; and as they 
were struggling, the other came behind, and 
ran his sword into his body, of which he pres- 
ently died. It was in the time of the assizes, 
so they were both tried. Against the one, there 
was no evidence of forethought felony, so he 
was only found guilty of manslaughter, and 
burnt in the hand ; but the other was found 
guilty of murder : and though Colonel Whaley, 
who commanded the garrison, came into the 
court and urged that the man was killed only 
for disobeying the Protector's orders, and that 
the soldier was but doing his duty; yet the 
judge regarded both his reasons and threatenings 
very little, and therefore he not only gave sen- 
tence against him, but ordered the execution to 
be so suddenly done, that it might not be possi- 
ble to procure a reprieve, which he believed 
would have been obtained, if there had been 
time enough granted for it. 



MATTHEW HALE. 



29 



Another occasion was given him of showing 
both his justice and courage, when he was in 
another circuit : he understood that the Pro- 
tector had ordered a jury to be returned for a 
trial in which he was more than ordinarily con- 
cerned : upon this information, he examined 
the sheriff about it, who knew nothing of it, for 
he said he referred all such things to the under 
sheriff, and having next asked the under sheriff 
concerning it, he found the jury had been re- 
turned by order from Cromwell : upon which 
he showed the statute, that all juries ought to 
be returned by the sheriff, or his lawful officer ; 
and this not being done according to law, he 
dismissed the jury, and would not try the cause. 
Upon which the Protector was highly displeased 
with him, and at his return from the circuit, he 
told him in anger he was not fit to be a judge ; 
to which all the answer he made was, that it 
was very true. 

Another thing met him in the circuit, upon 
which he resolved to have proceeded severely : 
Some persons had rushed into a church, and 
had disturbed a congregation while they were 
receiving the sacrament, not without some vio- 
lence ; at this he was highly offended, for he 
said it was intolerable for men who pretended 
highly to liberty of conscience, to go and disturb 
others ; especially those who had the encour- 
agement of the law on their side. But these 
were so supported by some great magistrates 
and officers, that a stop was put to his proceed- 
ings ; upon which he declared he would meddle 
no more with the trials on the crown side. 



30 MATTHEW HALE. 

When Penruddock's trial was brought on, 
there was a special messenger sent to him 
requiring him to assist at it. It was in vacation 
time, and he was at his country-house at Alder- 
ley. He plainly refused to go, and said the 
four terms and two circuits were enough, and 
the little interval that was between was little 
enough for their private affairs, and so he 
excused himself He thought it was not neces- 
sary to speak more clearly, but if he had been 
urged to it, he would not have been afraid of 
doing it. 

He was at that time chosen a parliament 
man, for there being then no House of Lords, 
judges might have been chosen to sit in the 
House of Commons ; and he went to it, on 
design to obstruct the mad and wicked projects 
then on foot, by two parties that had very differ- 
ent principles and ends. 

On the one hand, some that were perhaps 
more sincere, yet were really brain sick, de- 
signed they knew not what, being resolved to 
pull down a standing ministry, the law and 
property of England, and all the ancient rules 
of this government, and set up in its room an 
indigested, enthusiastical scheme, wliich they 
called the kingdom of Christ, or of his saints ; 
many of them being really in expectation that 
one day or another Christ would come down and 
sit among them, and at least they thought to 
begin the glorious thousand years mentioned in 
the Revelation. 

Others at the same time, taking advantages 
from the fears and apprehensions that all the 



MATTHEW HALE* 31 

sober men of the nation were in, lest they should 
fall under the tyranny of a distracted sort of 
people, who to all their other ill principles added 
great cruelty, which they had copied from dis- 
orderly persons in a former age, intended to im- 
prove that opportunity to raise their ovvn fortunes 
and families. Amidst these, judge Hale steered 
a middle course; for as he would engage for 
neither side, so he with a great many more 
worthy men came to parliaments, more out of 
a design to hinder mischief, than to do much 
good ; wisely foreseeing, that the inclinations 
for the royal family were daily growing so much, 
that in time the disorders then in agitation 
would ferment to that happy resolution in which 
they determined in May 1660. And therefore 
all that could be then done was, to oppose the 
ill designs of both parties, the enthusiasts as 
well as the usurpers. Among the other extrav- 
agant motions made in this parliament, one 
was, to destroy all the records in the tower, and 
to settle the nation on a new foundation ; so he 
took this province to himself, to show the mad- 
ness of this proposition, the injustice of it, and 
the mischief that would follow on it; and did it 
with such clearness, and strength of reason, as 
not only satisfied all sober persons, for it may 
be supposed that was soon done, but stopped 
even the mouths of the frantic people themselves. 
Thus he continued administering justice till 
the Protector died ; but then he both refused the 
mournings that were sent to him and his ser- 
vants for the funeral, and likewise to accept of 
the new commission that was offered him by 



32 MATTHEW HALE. 

Richard ; and when tlie rest of the judges 
urged it upon him, and employed others to 
press him to accept of it, he rejected all their 
importunities, and said he could act no longer 
under the existing authority. 



CHAPTER III. 

HIS RETIREMENT ON THE DEATH OF CROMWELL ...*^ 
HIS IMPARTIALITY IN THE ADMINISTRATION OF 
JUSTICE.... HIS LIBERALITY TOWARDS THE NON- 
CONFORMISTS. 

He lived a private man till the parliament 
met that called home the King, to which he was 
returned knight of the shire from the county of 
Gloucester. It appeared at that time how much 
he was beloved and esteemed in his neighbour- 
hood : for, though another who stood in cop~^e- 
tition with him had spent near a thousand 
pounds to procure voices, a great sum to be 
employed in that way in those days, and he had' 
been at no cost, and was so far from soliciting 
it, that he had stood out long against those who 
pressed him to appear, and he did not promise 
to appear till three days before the election, yet 
he was preferred. He was brought thither 
almost by violence, by the lord, after earl of 
Berkley, who bore all the charge of the enter- 



MATTHEW HALE. 33 

tainments on the day of his election, which was 
considerable, and had engaged all his friends 
and interest for him : and whereas by the writ, 
the knight of a shire must be miles gladio 
cinctus, (a soldier girded with a sword,) and he 
had no sword, that noble lord girt him with his 
own sword during the election ; but he was soon 
weary of it, for the embroidery of the belt did 
not suit well with the plainness of his clothes : 
and indeed the election did not hold long, for 
as soon as ever he came into the field, he was 
chosen by much the greater number, though 
the poll continued for three or our days. 

In that parliament he bore his share, in the 
happy period then put to the confusions that 
threatened the utter ruin of the nation, which, 
contrary to the expectations of the most sanguine, 
settled in so serene and quiet a manner, that 
those who had formerly built so much on their 
success, calling it an answer from heaven to 
their solemn appeals to the providence of God, 
were now not a little confounded, to see all this 
turned against themselves, in an instance much 
more extraordinary than any of those were upon 
whioii they had built so much. His great pru- 
dence and excellent temper led him to think, 
that the sooner an act of indemnity were passed, 
and the fuller it were of graces and favours, it 
would sooner settle the nation, and quiet the 
minds of the people ; and therefore he applied 
himself with a particular care to the framing 
and carrying it on : in which it was visible he 
had no concern of his own, but merely his love 
of the public that set him on to it. 
4 



34 MATTHEW HALE» 

Soon after this, when the Courts in Westmin- 
ster Hall came to be settled, he was made lord 
chief baron, in November; and when the Earl 
of Clarendon, then lord chanchellor, delivered 
him his commission, in the speech he made 
according to the custom on such occasions, he 
expressed his esteem of him in a very singular 
manner, telling him among other things, that if 
the King could have found out an honester and 
fitter man for that employment, he would not 
have advanced him to it ; and that he had 
therefore preferred him, because he knew none 
that deserved it so well. It is ordinary for 
persons so promoted to be knighted, but he 
desired to avoid having that honour done him, 
and therefore for a considerable time declined 
all opportunities of waiting on the King ; which 
the lord chancellor observing, sent for him upon 
business one day when the King was at his 
house, and told his majesty there was his modest 
chief baron ; upon which he was unexpectedly 
knighted. 

He continued eleven years in that place, 
managing the court, and all proceedings in it, 
with singular justice. It vvas observed by the 
whole nation, how much he raised the reputation 
and practice of it: and those who held places 
and offices in it can all declare, not only the 
impartiality of his justice, for that is but a com- 
mon virtue, but his generosity, his vast diligence, 
and his great exactness in trials. This gave 
occasion to the only complaint that ever was 
made of him, that he did not despatch matters 
<}uick enough ; but the great care he used to 



MATTHEW HALE. 35 

put suits to a final end, as it made him slower 
in deciding them, so it had tins good effect, that 
causes tried before him were seldom if ever 
tried again. 

Nor did his administration of justice lie only 
in that court : he was one of the principal 
judges that sat in Clifford's Inn about settling 
the difference between landlord and tenant after 
the dreadful fire of London ; he being the first 
that offered his service to the city for accommo- 
dating all the differences that might have arisen 
about the rebuilding it, in which he behaved 
himself to the satisfaction of all persons con- 
cerned ; so that the sudden and quiet building 
of the city, which is justly to be reckoned one 
of the wonders of the age, is in no small meas- 
ure due to the great care which he and Sir 
Orlando Bridgeman, then lord chief justice of 
the Common Pleas, afterwards lord keeper of 
the great seal of England, used, and to the 
judgment they showed in that affair : since 
without the rules then laid down, there might 
have otherwise followed such an endless train 
of vexatious suits, as might have been little less 
chargeable than the fire itself had been. But 
without detracting from the labours of the other 
judges, it must be acknowledged that he was 
the most instrumental in that great work ; for 
he first by way of scheme contrived the rules 
upon which he and the rest proceeded after- 
wards ; in which his readiness at arithmetic, 
and his skill in architecture, were of sreat use 
to hmi. 

But it will not seem strange that a judge 



36 MATTHEW HALE. 

behaved himself as he did, who at the entry into 
his employment set such excellent rules to him- 
self, which will appear in the following paper, 
copied from the original under his own hand. 

THINGS NECESSARY TO BE CONTINUALLY HAD 
IN REMEMBRANCE. 

r. That in the administration of justice, I am entrusted for God, 
the i^infiand country ; and therefore, 

II. Tliat it be done: 1. Uprightly j 2. Deliberately j 3. Reso- 

lutely. 

III. That I rest not upon my own understanding or strength, but 

implore and rest upon the direction and strength of Cod. 

IV. That in the execution of justice, I carefully lay aside my own 

passions, and not give way to them, however provoked. 

V. That I be wholly intent upon the business I am about, remit- 

ting all other cares and thoughts as unseasonable and 
interruptions. 

VI. That I suffer not myself to be prepossessed with any judgment 

at all, till the whole business and both parties be heard. 

VII. That I never engage myself in the beginning of any cause, 

but reserve myself unprejudiced till tiie whole be heard. 

VIII. 'J'hat in business capital, though my nature prompt me to 
pity, yet to consider that there is always a pity due to the 
country. 

IX. That I be not too rigid in matters p'.irely conscientious, where 

all the harm is diversity of judgment. 

X. That I be not biassed with compassion to the poor, or favour 

to the rich, in point of justice. 

XI. That popular or court applause, or distaste, have no influence 

into any thing I do in point of distribution of justice. 

XII. Not to be solicitous what men will say or think, so long as 

I keep myself exactly according to the rule of justice. 

XIII. If in criminals it be a measuring cast, to incline to mercy 
and acquittal. 

XIV. In criminals that consist merely in words, when no more 
harm ensues, moderation is no injustice. 

XV. In criminalsof blood, if the fact beevident,severity is justice. 

XVI. To abhor all private solicitations, of wliat kind soever, and 
by whomsoever, in matters depending. 

XVII. To charge my servants : 1. JVot to interpose in any busi- 
ness whatsoever ; 2. Not to take more than their known 
fees ; 3. Not to give any undue precedence to causes; 
4. Not to recommend counsel. 

XVIII. To be short and sparing at meals, that I may be the fitter 
for business. 

He would never receive private addresses or 
recommendations from the greatest persons in 



MATTHEW HALE. 37 

any matter in which justice was concerned. 
One of the first peers of England went once to 
his chamber, and told him, that having a suit 
in law to be tried before him, he was then to 
acquaint him with it, that he might the better 
understand it when it should come to be heard 
in court. Upon which the lord chief justice 
interrupted him, and said he did not deal fairly 
to come to his chamber about such affairs, for 
he never received any information of causes but 
in open court, where both parties were to be 
heard alike ; so he would not suffer him to go 
on : whereupon his Grace (for he was a duke) 
went away not a little dissatisfied, and com- 
plained of it to the King as a rudeness that was 
not to be endured. But his majesty bade him 
content himself that he was no worse used, and 
said, he verily believed he would have used 
himself no better, if he had gone to solicit him 
in any of his own causes. 

Another passage fell out in one of his circuits, 
which was somewhat censured as too strict, but 
it flowed from his exactness as to the rules he 
liad set himself. A gentleman had sent him 
a buck for his table, that had a trial at the 
assizes ; so wlien he heard his name, he asked 
if he was not the same person that had sent him 
venison, and finding he was the same, he told 
him, he would uot suffer the trial to go on till 
lie had paid him for his buck ; to which the 
gentleman answered, that he never sold his 
venison, and that he had done nothing to him 
which he did not do to every judge that had 
gone that circuit, which was confirmed by sev- 
4* 



38 MATTHEW HALE. 

eral gentlemen then present : but all would not 
do, for the lord chief justice had learned from 
Solomon, that '* a gift perverteth the ways of 
judgment," and therefore he would not suffer 
the trial to go on, till he had paid for the pres- 
ent ; upon which the gentleman withdrew the 
record. And at Salisbury, the dean and chap- 
ter having according to the custom presented 
him with six sugar-loaves in his circuit, he made 
his servants pay for the sugar before he would 
try their cause. 

It was not so easy for him to throw off the 
importunities of the poor, for whom his com- 
passion wrought more powerfully than his regard 
to wealth and greatness ; yet, when justice was 
concerned, even that did not turn him out of 
the way. There was one that had been put out 
of a place for some ill behaviour, who urged 
lord chief justice Hale to set his hand to a certifi- 
cate to restore him to it, or provide him with 
another ; but he told him plainly his fault was 
such that he could not doit. The other pressed 
him vehemently, and fell down on his knees, and 
begged it of him with many tears ; but finding 
that could not prevail, he said he should be 
utterly ruined if he did it not, and he should 
curse him for it every day. But that having no 
effect, then he fell out into all the reproachful 
words that passion and despair could inspire 
him with ; to which all the answer the lord chief 
justice made was, that he could very well bear 
all his reproaches, but he could not for all that 
set his hand to his certificate. He saw he was 



MATTHEW HALE. 39 

poor, so he gave him a Jarge charity, and sent 
him away. 

But now he was to go on after his pattern 
Pomponius Atticus, still to favour and relieve 
them that were lowest ; so besides great chari- 
ties to the nonconformists, who were then, as 
he thought, too hardly used, he took great care 
to cover them all he could from the severities 
some designed against them, and discouraged 
those who were inclined to stretch the laws too 
much against them. He lamented the differ- 
ences that were raised in the church very much ; 
and according to the impartiality of his justice, 
he blamed some things on both sides, which I 
shall set down with the same freedom that he 
spake them. He thought many of the noncon- 
formists had merited highly in the business of 
the King's restoration, and at least deserved that 
the terms of conformity should not have been 
made stricter than they were before the w-ar. 
There was not then that dreadful prospect of 
popery that has appeared since. But that which 
afflicted him most was, that he saw the heats 
and contentions, which followed upon those 
different parties and interests, did take people 
off from the indispensable things of religion, 
and slackened the zeal of otherwise good men 
for the substance of it, so much being spent 
about external and indifferent things. It also 
gave advantage to atheists to treat the most 
sacred points of our holy faith as ridiculous, 
when they saw the professors of it contend so 
fiercely, and with such bitterness, about lesser 
matters. He was much offended at all those 



40 MATTHEW HALE. 

books that were written to oppose the contrary 
sect to the scorn and contempt of the age in a 
wanton and petulant style. He thought sucli 
writers wounded the Christian religion, through 
the sides of those who differed from them ; while 
a sort of lewd people, who having assumed to 
themselves the title of the wits, though but a 
very few of them had a right to it, took up from 
both hands what they had said to make one 
another show ridiculous, and from thence per- 
suaded the world to laugh at both, and at all 
religion for their sakes. 

******* 

He scarce ever meddled in state intrigues, 
yet, upon a proposition that was set on foot by 
the lord keeper Bridgeman, for a comprehension 
of the more moderate dissenters, and a limited 
indulgence towards such as could not be brought 
within the comprehension, he dispensed with 
his maxim of avoiding to engage in matters of 
state. There were several meetings upon that 
occasion : the divine of the church of England 
that appeared most considerably for it was Dr. 
Wilkins, afterwards promoted to the bishoprick 
of Chester, a man of as great a mind, as true a 
judgmvCnt, as eminent virtues, and of as good a 
soul, as any I ever knew. He being determined 
as well by his excellent temper, as by his fore- 
sight and prudence, by which he early perceived 
the great prejudices that religion received, and 
the vast dangers the reformation was likely to 
full under by those divisions, set about that 
project with the magnanimity that was indeed 
peculiar to himself; for though he was much 



MATTHEW HALE. 41 

censured by many of his own side, and seconded 
by very few, yet he pushed it as far as he could. 
After several conferences with two of the most 
eminent of the Presbyterian divines, heads were 
agreed on, some abatements were to be made, 
and explanations were to be accepted of The 
particulars of that project being thus concerted, 
they were brought to the lord chief justice, who 
put them in form of a bill, to be presented to 
the next session of parliament. 

But two parties appeared vigorously against 
this design ; the one was of some zealous 
clergymen, who thought it below the dignity of 
the church to alter laws, and change settlements 
for the sake of some whom they esteemed 
schismatics ; they also believed it was better to 
keep them out of the church than bring them 
into it, since a faction upon that would arise in 
the church, which they thought might be more 
dangerous than the schism itself was. Besides, 
they said, if some things were now to be changed 
in compliance with the humour of a party, as 
soon as that was done, another party might 
demand other concessions, and there might be 
as good reasons for these as for those ; many 
such concessions might also shake those of our 
own communion, and tempt them to forsake us 
and go over to the church of Rome, pretending 
that we changed so often, that they were there- 
by inclined to be of a church that was constant 
and true to herself These were the rea.sons 
brought, and chiefly insisted on, against all 
comprehension : and they wrought upon the 
greater part of the House of Commons, so that 



42 MATTHEW HALE. 

they passed a vote against the receiving of any 
bill' for that effect. 

There were others that opposed it upon very 
different ends ; they designed to shelter the 
papists from the execution of the law, and saw 
clearly that nothing could bring in popery so 
■well as toleration. But to tolerate popery bare- 
faced would have startled the nation too much ; 
so it was necessary to hinder all the propositions 
for union, since the keeping up the differences 
was the best colour they could fmd for getting 
the toleration to pass only as a slackening the 
laws against dissenters, whose numbers and 
wealth made it adviseable to have some regard 
to them ; and under this pretence popery might 
have crept in more covered, and less regarded. 
So these counsels being more acceptable to 
some concealed papists, then in great power, as 
has since appeared but too evidently, the whole 
project for comprehension was let fall, and those 
who had set it on foot came to be looked on 
with an ill eye, as secret favourers of the dis- 
senters, underminers of the church, and every 
thing else that jealousy and distaste could cast 
upon them. 

But upon this occasion the lord chief justice 
and Dr. Wilkins came to contract a firm and 
familiar friendship ; and the lord chief justice 
having much business, and little tijiie to spare, 
did, to enjoy the other the more, what he had 
scarce ever done before — he went sometimes 
to dine with him. And though he lived in great 
friendship with some other eminent cleroyrnen, 
as Dr. Ward, bishop of Salisbury ; Dr. Barlow, 



MATTHEW HALE. 43 

bishop of Lincoln ; Dr. BarrovVj late master of 
Trinity College ; Dr. Tillotson, dean of Canter- 
bury ; and Dr. Stillingfleet, dean of St. Paul's, 
(men so well known and so well esteemed, that 
it was no wonder that judge Hale valued 
their conversation highly, nor that they are 
reckoned among his friends,) yet there was 
an intimacy and freedom in his converse with 
bishop Wilkins that was singular to him alone. 
He had, during the late wars, lived a long 
and entire friendship with the apostolical primate 
of Ireland, bishop Usher : their curious searches 
into antiquity, and the sympathy of both their 
tempers, led them to a great agreement almost 
in every thing. He held also pleasing con- 
versations with Rev. Richard Baxter, who was 
his neighbour at Acton, on whom he looked as 
a person of great devotion and piety, and of a 
very subtile and quick apprehension : their con- 
versations lay most in metaphysical and ab- 
stracted ideas and schemes. 



44 MATTHEW HALE. 



CHAPTER IV. 

HIS V/RITINGS ON THEORETICAL AND PRACTICAI, 
RELIGION.... HIS APPOINTMENT AS LORD CHIEF 
JUSTICE OF ENGLAND.... HIS REFLECTIONS ON 
HIS OFFICE.... HIS RESIGNATION. 

He looked with great sorrow on the impiety 
and atheism of the age, and so he set himself 
to oppose it, not only by the shining example 
of his own life, but by engaging in a cause that 
indeed could hardly fall into better hands : and 
as he could not find a subject more worthy of 
himself, so there were few in the age that under- 
stood it so well, or could manage it more skilfully. 
The occasion that first led him to write about 
it was this : — He was a strict observer of the 
Lord's-day, in which, besides his constancy in 
the public worship of God, he used to call all 
his family together, and repeat to them the 
heads of the sermons, with some additions of 
his own, which he fitted for their capacities and 
circumstances ; and that being done, he had a 
custom of shutting himself up for two or three 
hours, which he either spent in his secret devo- 
tions, or in such profitable meditations as did 
then occur to his thoughts. He wrote them 
with the same simplicity that he formed them 
in his mind, without any art, or so much as a 



^MATTHEW HALE. 45 

thought to let them be published : he never 
Gorrected them, but laid them by when he had 
finished them, having intended only to fix and 
preserve his own reflections in them : so that 
he used no sort of care to polish them, or make 
the first draft more perfect than when they 
came from his pen. These fell into the hands 
of a worthy person, and he judging, as well he 
might, that the communicating them to the 
world might be a public service, printed two 
volumes of them in octavo, a little before the 
author's death, containing his 

CONTBMPIiATIONS. 

1. Of our latter End, 

2. Of Wisdom, and the Fear of God. 

3. Of the knowledge of Christ crucified. 

4. The Victory of Faith over the World. 

5. Of Humility. 

6. Jacob's Vovy. 

7. Of Contention. 

8. Of Afflictions. 

9. A good method to entertain unstable and troublesome Times. 

10. Changes and Troubles, a Poem. 

11. Of the Redemption of Time. 

12. The great Audit. 

13. Directions touching keeping the Lord's-day, in a Letter to 

his Children. 

14. Poems written upon Christmas-day. 

[In the Second Volume.i 
1. An Enquiry touching Happiness. 
9. Of the chief End of Man. 

3. Upon 12EccIes. 1. Remember thy Creator. 

4. Upon the 5Ist Psalm, 5:10. Create a clean heart in me ; 

with a poem. 

5. The Folly and Mischief of Sin. 

6. Of Self-Den ial. 

7. Motives to Watchfulness, in reference to the Good and Evil 

Angels. 

8. Of Moderation of the Affections. 

9. Of worldly Hope and Expectation. 

10. Upon 13 Heb. 14. We have here no continuing city 

11. Of Contentedness and Patience. 

12. Of Moderation of Anger. 

13. A Preparative against Afflictions. 

5 



46 MATTHEW HALE.. 

14. Of Subniisr.ion, Prayer, nnd Thanksgiving. 

15. Of Prayer and Th;inksgiving, on Psaini 116 : 13. 

16. Meditations on the Lord's Prayer, with a Paraphrase upon it. 

In them there appears a generous and true 
-spirit of religion, mixed with most serious and 
fervent devotion; and perhaps with the more 
advantage, that the style wants some correction, 
which shows they were the genuine productions 
of an excellent mind, entertaining itself in secret 
with such contemplations. The style is clear 
and masculine, in a due temper between flatness 
and affectation, in which he expresses his 
thoughts both easily and decently. In writing 
these discourses, having run over most of the 
subjects that his own circumstances led him 
chiefly to consider, he began to be in some pain 
to choose new arguments, and therefore resolved 
to fix on a theme that should hold him longer. 

He was soon determined in his choice by the 
immoral and irreligious principles and practices 
that had so long vexed his righteous soul ; and 
therefore began a great design against atheism, 
the first part of v/hich is only printed, of the 
Origination of Mankind, designed to prove the 
creation of the world, and the truth of the 
Mosaical history. 

The second part v^^as of the Nature of the 
Soul, and of a Future State. 

The third part was concerning the Attributes 
of God, both from the abstracted ideas of him, 
and the light of nature ; the evidence of provi- 
dence, the notions of morality, and the voice of 
conscience. 

And the fourth part was concerning the Truth 
and Authority of the Scriptures, with Answers 



MATTHEW HALE. 47 

to the Objections against them. On writing 
these he spent seven years. He wrote them 
with so much consideration, that one who pe- 
rused the original under his own hand, which 
was the first draft of it, told me, he did not 
remember any considerable alteration, perhaps 
not of twenty words in the whole work. 

The way of his writing them, only on the 
evenings of the Lord's-day, when he was in 
town, and not much oftener when he was in 
the country, made that they are not so contracted, 
as it is very likely he would have written them 
if he had been more at leisure to have brought 
his thoughts into a narrower compass and fewer 
words. 

But making some allowance for the largeness 
of the style, that volume that is printed is gen- 
erally acknowledged to be one of the most per- 
fect pieces both of learning and reasoning that 
has been written on that subject ; and he who 
read a great part of the other volumes, told me 
they were all of a piece with the first. 

When he had finished this work, he sent it by 
an unknown hand to bishop Wilkins, to desire 
his judgment of it ; but he that brought it would 
give no other account of the author, but that 
he was not a clergyman. The bishop, and his 
worthy friend Dr. Tillotson, read a great deal 
of it with much pleasure, but could not imagine 
who could be the author, and how a man that 
was master of so much reason, and so great a 
variety of knowledge, should be so unknown to 
them, that they could not find him out by those 
characters which are so little common. At last 



48 MATTHEW HALE. 

Dr. Tillotson guessed it must be the lord chief 
justice, to which the other presently agreed, 
wondering he had been so long in finding it 
out. So they went immediately to him, and 
the bishop thanking him for the entertainment 
he had received from his works,- he blushed 
extremely, not without some displeasure, appre- 
hending that the person he had trusted had 
discovered him. But the bishop soon cleared 
that, and told him he had discovered himself, 
for the learning of that book was so various, 
that none but he could be the author of it. 
And that bishop having a freedom in delivering 
his opinions of things and persons, which per- 
haps {ew ever managed both with so much 
plainness and prudence, told him, there was 
nothing could be better said on these arguments, 
if he could bring it into a less compass ; but if he 
had not leisure for that, he thought it much 
better to have it come out, though a little too 
large, than that the world should be deprived 
of the good which it must needs do. But our 
judge had never the opportunities of revising it, 
so a little before his death he sent the first part 
of it to the press. 

In the beginning of it he gives an essay of his 
excellent way of methodizing things, in which 
he was so great a master, that vvhatever he un- 
dertook, he would presently cast into so perfect 
a scheme, that he could never afterwards cor- 
rect it. He runs out copiously upon the argu- 
ment of the impossibility of an eternal succession 
of time, to show that time and eternity are in- 
consistent one with another ; and that therefore 



MATTHEW HALE. 49 

all duration that was past, and defined by time, 
could not be from eternity ; and he shows the 
difference between successive eternity already 
past, and one to come ; so that, though the 
latter is possible, the former is not so ; for all 
the parts of the former have actually been, and 
therefore, being defined by time, cannot be 
eternal ; whereas the other are still future to 
all eternity : so that this reasoning cannot be 
turned to prove the possibility of eternal succes- 
sions that have been, as well as eternal successions 
that shall be. This he follows with a strength 
I never met with in any that managed it before 
him. 

He brings next all those moral arguments to 
prove that the world had a beginning, agreeing 
to the account Moses gives of it, as that no history 
rises higher than near the time of the Deluge, 
and that the first foundation of kingdoms, the 
invention of arts, the beginnings of all religions, 
the gradual plantation of the world and increase 
of mankind, and the consent of nations, do 
agree with it. In managing these, as he shows 
profound skill both in historical and philosophi- 
cal learning, so he gives a noble discovery of 
his great candour and probity, that he would 
not impose on the reader with a false show of 
reasoning by arguments that he knew had flaws 
in them ; and therefore, upon every one of these 
he adds such allays, as in a great measure les- 
sened and took oft' their force with as nmch 
exactness of judgment and strictness of censure, 
as if he had been set to plead for the other side ; 
and, indeed, sums up the whole evidence for 
5* 



50 MATTHEW HALT!. 

religion as impartially as ever he did in a trial 
for life or death to the jury ; which how equally 
and judiciously he did, the whole nation well 
knows. 

After that, he examines the ancient opinions 
of the philosophers, and enlarges with a great 
variety of curious reflections in answering that 
only argument that has any appearance of 
strength for the casual production of man, from 
the origination of insects out of putrified matter, 
as is commonly supposed ; and he concluded 
the book, showing how rational and philosophi- 
cal the account which Moses gives of it is. 
There is in it all, a sagacity and quickness of 
thought, mixed with great and curious learning, 
that I confess I never met together in any other 
book on that subject. Among other conjectures, 
one he gives concerning the Deluge is, that he 
did not think the face of the earth and the 
"waters were altogether the same before the 
universal Deluge, and after ; but possibly the 
face of the earth was more even than now it is ; 
the seas possibly more dilated and extended, 
and not so deep as now. And a little after, 
possibly the seas have undermined much of the 
appearing continent of earth. This I the rather 
take notice of, because it hath been, since his 
death, made out in a most ingenious and most 
elegantly written book, by Mr. Burnet, of Christ's 
College in Cambridge, who has given such an 
essay towards the proving the possibility of an 
universal deluge, and from thence has collected, 
with great sagacity, what Paradise was before 



MATTHEW HALE. 51 

■It, as has not been offered by any philosopher 
before him. 

While the judge was thus employing his time, 
the lord chief justice Keyling dying, he was, 
on the 18th of May, 1671, promoted to be 
lord chief justice of England. He had made 
the pleas of the crown one of his chief studies, 
and by much search and long observation had 
composed that great work concerning them 
formerly mentioned. He that holds the high 
office of justiciary in that court being the chief 
trustee and asserter of the liberties of his coun- 
try, all people applauded this choice, and 
thought their liberties could not be better de- 
posited than in the hands of one, that, as he 
understood them well, so he had all the justice 
and courage that so sacred a trust inspired. 
One thing was much observed and commended 
in him, that when there was a great inequality 
in the ability and learning of the counsellors 
that were to plead one against another, he 
thought it became him, as the judge, to supply 
that ; so he would enforce what the weaker 
counsel managed but indifferently, and not 
suffer the more learned to carry the business 
by the advantage they had over the others in 
their quickness and skill in law, and readiness 
in pleading, till all things were cleared in which 
the merits and strength of the ill-defended 
cause lay. He was not satisfied barely to give 
his judgment in causes, but did especially in all 
intricate ones, give such an account of the 
reasons that prevailed with him, that the counsel 
did not only acquiesce in his authority, but 



52 MATTHEW HALE. 

were so convinced by his reasons, that I have 
heard many proiess that he brought them often 
to change their opinions ; so that his giving of 
judgment vvas really a learned lecture upon that 
point of law ; and which was yet more, the 
parties themselves, though interest does too 
commonly corrrupt the judgment, were gener- 
ally satisfied with the justice of his decisions, 
even when they were made against them. His 
impartial justice and great diligence drew the 
chief practice after him, into whatsoever court 
he came : since, though the courts of Common 
Pleas, the Exchequer, and the King's Bench, 
are appointed for the trial of causes of different 
natures, yet it is easy to bring most causes into 
any of them, as the counsel or attorneys please ; 
so, as he liad drawn tlie business much after 
him, both into the Common Pleas and the 
Exchequer, it now followed him into the King's 
Bench, and many causes that were depending 
in the Exchequer and not determined, were let 
fall there, and brought again before him in the 
court to which he was now removed. And 
here did he spend the rest of his public life and 
employment. But about four years and a half 
after this advancement, he, who had hitherto 
enjoyed a firm and vigorous health, to which his 
great temperance and the equality of his mind 
did not a little conduce, was on a sudden brought 
very low by an inflammation in the diaphragm, 
which in two days' time broke the constitution 
of his health to such a degree that he never 
recovered it. He became so asthmatical, that 
with great difficulty he could fetch his breath ; 



MATTHEW HALE. 53 

that determined in a dropsy, of which he after- 
wards died. He understood physic so well, that, 
considering his age, he concluded his distemper 
must carry him off in a little time ; and therefore 
he resolved to have some of the last months of 
his life reserved to himself, that, being freed 
of all worldly cares, he might be preparing for 
his change. He was also so much disabled in 
his body, that he could hardly, though supported 
by his servants, walk through Westminster 
Hall, or endure the toil of business. He had 
been a long time wearied with the distractions 
that his employment had brought on him, and 
his profession was become ungrateful to him ; 
he loved to apply himself wholly to better pur- 
poses, as will appear by a paper that he wrote on 
this subject, which I shall here insert: 

" First, If 1 consider the business of my 
profession, whether as an advocate or as a judge, 
it is true I do acknowledge, by the institution 
of Almighty God, and the dispensation of his 
providence, I am bound to industry, and fidelity 
in it ; and as it is an act of obedience unto his 
will, it carries with it something of religious 
duty, and I may and do take comfort in it, and 
expect a reward of my obedience to him, and 
the good that I do to mankind therein, from the 
bounty and beneficence and promise of Almighty 
God. And it is true also, that without such 
employments, civil societies cannot be supported, 
and great good redounds to mankind from them ; 
and in these respects, the conscience of my own 
industry, fidelity, and integrity in them, is a 
great comfort and satisfaction to me. But yet 



54 MATTHEW HALE. 

this I must say concerning these employments, 
considered simply in themselves, that they are 
very full of cares, anxieties, and perturbations. 

" Secondly, That though they are beneficial 
to others, yet they are of the least benefit to him 
that is employed in them. 

" Thirdly, That they do necessarily involve 
the party whose office it is, in great dangers, 
difficulties, and calumnies. 

" Fourthly, That they only serve for the 
meridian of this life, which is short and un- 
certain. 

** Fifthly, That though it be my duty fliith- 
fully to serve in them while I am called to 
them, and till I am duly called from them, yet 
they are great consumers of that little time we 
have here, which, as it seems to me, might be 
better spent in a pious, contemplative life, and 
a due provision for eternity. I do not know a 
better temporal employment than Martha had, 
in testifying her love and duty to our Saviour, 
by making provision for him ; yet our Lord tells 
her. That though she was troubled about many 
things, there was only one thing necessary, and 
Mary had chosen the better part." 

By this the reader will see that he continued 
in his station upon no other consideration, but 
that, being set in it by the providence of God, 
he judged be could not abandon that post which 
was assigned him, without preferring his own 
private inclination to the choice God had made 
for him ; but now, that same Providence having 
by th.is great distemper disengaged him from 
the obligation of holding a yAiice which he was 



MATTHEW HALE. 55 

no longer able to discharge, he resolved to resign 
it. This was no sooner surmised abroad, than 
it drew upon him the importunities of all his 
friends, and the clamour of the whole town, to di- 
vert him from it; but all was to no purpose: there 
was but one argument that could move him, 
which was, that he was obliged to continue in 
the employment God had put him in for the 
good of the public. But to this he had such an 
answer, that even those who were most concern- 
ed in his withdrawing, could not but see that 
the reasons inducing him to it, were but too 
strong ; so he made applications to his majesty, 
in January 1675-6, for his writ of ease, which 
the king was very unwilling to grant him, and 
offered to let him hold his place still, he doing 
what business he could in his chamber; but he 
said he could not with a good conscience con- 
tinue in it, since he was no longer able to dis- 
charge the duty belonging to it. 

But yet such was the general satisfaction 
which all the kingdom received by his excellent 
administration of justice, that the king, though 
he could not well deny his request, yet he defer- 
red the granting of it as long as was possible. 
Nor could the lord chancellor be prevailed with 
to move the king to hasten his discharge, though 
the chief justice often pressed him to it. 

At last, having wearied himself and all his 
friends with his importunate desires, and grow- 
ing sensibly weaker in body, he did upon the 
21st day of February, 28 Car. II. anno Domini 
1675-6, go before a master of the chancery 
with a little parchment deed, drawn by himself. 



56 MAl-THEW HALE. 

and written all with his own hand, and there 
sealed and delivered it, and acknowledged it to 
be enrolled ; and afterwards he brought the 
original deed to the lord chancellor, and did 
formally surrender his office by an instrument 
written in Latin. 

He made this instrument, as he told the lord 
chancellor, for two ends : the one was to show 
the world his own free concurrence to his re- 
moval ; another was to obviate an objection 
heretofore made, that a chief justice being 
placed by writ, was not removeable at pleasure, 
as judges by patent were : which opinion, as he 
said, was once held by his predecessor the lord 
chief justice Keyling, and though he himself 
were always of another opinion, yet he thought 
it reasonable to prevent such a scruple. 

He had the day before surrendered to the 
king in person, who parted from him with great 
grace, wishing him most heartily the return of 
his health, and assuring him that he would still 
look upon him as one of his judges, and have 
recourse to his advice when his health would 
permit ; and in the mean time would continue 
his pension during his life. 

The good man thought this bounty too great, 
arid an ill precedent for the king, and therefore 
wrote a letter to the lord treasurer, earnestly 
desiring that his pension might be only during 
pleasure ; but the king would grant it for life, 
and make it payable quarterly. 

And yet for a whole month together he would 
not suffer his servant to sue out his patent for 
his pension, and when the first payment was 



MATTHEW HALE* 57 

received, he ordered a great part of it to chari- 
table uses, and said he intended most of it 
should be so employed as long as it was paid 
him 

At last, he happened to die upon the quarter- 
day, which was Christmas-day ; and though 
this might have given some occasion to a dispute 
whether the pension for that quarter were re- 
coverable, yet the king was pleased to decide 
that matter against himself, and ordered the 
pension to be paid to his executors. 

As soon as he was discharged from his great 
place, he returned home with as much cheerful* 
ness as his want of health could admit of, being 
now eased of a burthen he had been of late 
groaning under, and so made more capable of 
enjoying that which he had much wished for, 
according to his elegant translation of, or rather 
paraphrase upon, those excellent lines in Sene-^ 
ca's Thyestes, Act II. 

Let him that will, ascend the totterin? seat 
Of courtly grandeur, and become as great 
As are his mounting wishes : As for me, 
Let sweet repose and rest my portion be ; 
Give me some mean, obscure recess, a sphere 
Out of the road of business, or the fear 
Of falling lower ; where I sweetly may 
Myself and dear retirement still enjoy ; 
Let not my life or name be known unto 
The grandees of the time, tossed to and fro 
By censures or applause ; but let my age 
Slide gently by, not overthwart the stage 
Of public action, unheard, unseen. 
And unconcerned, as if I ne'er had been. 
And thus, while I shall pass my silent days 
In shady privacy, free from the noise 
And bustles of the mad world, then shall I 
A good old innocent plebeian die. 
Death is a mere surprise, a very snare 
To him, that makes it his life's greatest care' 
To be a public pageant, known to all. 
But unacquainted with himself^ doth fall*- 

6 



58 MATTHEW HALE. 



CHAPTER V. 

JUDGE HALe's private LIFE.... HIS LAST SICK- 
NESS.... HIS DEATH, AND PROSPECT OF HEAVENLY' 
GLORY. 

Having now attained to that privacy which 
he had no less seriously than piously wished 
for, he called all his servants that had belonged 
to his office together, and told them he had now 
laid down his place, and so their employments 
were determined. Upon that, he advised them 
to see for themselves, and gave to some of them 
very considerable presents, and to every one of 
them a token, and so dismissed all those that 
were not his domestics. He was discharged 
the 15th of February, 1675-6, and lived till the 
Christmas following ; but all the while was in 
so ill a state of health, that there were no hopes 
of his recovery. He continued still to retire 
often, both for his devotions and studies ; and 
as long as he could go, went constantly to his 
closet ; and when his infirmities increased on 
him so that he was not able to go thither him*^ 
self, he made his servants carry him thither in 
a chair. At last, as the winter came on, he 
saw with great joy his deliverance approaching ; 
for, besides his being weary of the world, and 
his longings for the blessedness of another state,. 



MATTHEW HALE. 59 

his pains increased so on him, that no patience 
inferior to his could have borne them without a 
great uneasiness of mind ; yet he expressed to 
the last such submission to the will of God, and 
so equal a temper under his pains, that it was 
visible then what mighty effects his philosophy 
and Christianity had on him, in supporting him 
under such a heavy load. 

He could not lie down in bed above a year 
before his death, by reason of the asthma ; but 
sat, rather than lay in it. 

He was attended on in his sickness by a pious 

and worthy divine, Mr. Evan Griffith, minister 

of the parish ; and it was observed that, in all 

the extremities of his pain, whenever he prayed 

by him, he forbore all complaints or groans, but 

with his hands and eyes lifted up was fixed in 

his devotions. Not long before his death, the 

minister told him there was to be a sacrament 

next Sunday at church, but he believed he 

could not come and partake with the rest ; 

therefore he would give it to him in his own 

house. But he answered, " No : his heavenly 

Father had prepared a feast for him : and he 

would go to his Father's house to partake of it." 

So he was carried thither in his chair, where he 

received the sacrament on his knees with great 

devotion, which it may be supposed was the 

greater, because he apprehended it was to be 

his last, and so took it as his provision for his 

journey. He had some secret, unaccountable 

presages of his death, for he said, that if he did 

not die on such a day, which fell to be the 25th 

of November, he believed he should live a 



60 MATTHEW HALE. 

month longer ; and he died that very day month. 
He continued to enjoy the free use of his reason 
and sense to the last moment, which he had 
often and earnestly j)rayed for during his sick- 
ness. And when his voice was so sunk that he 
could not be heard, they perceived by the almost 
constant lifting up of his eyes and hands, that 
he was still aspiring towards that blessed state, 
of which he was now speedily to be possessed. 

He had for many years a particular devotion 
for Christmas day, and after he had received 
the sacrament, and been in the performance of 
the public worship of that day, he commonly 
wrote a copy of verses on the honour of his 
Saviour, as a fit expression of the joy he felt in 
his soul at the return of that glorious anniversary. 
There are seventeen of those copies printed, 
which he wrote on seventeen several Christmas- 
days ; by which the world has a taste of his 
poetical genius, in which, if he had thought it 
worth his time to have excelled, he might have 
been eminent as well as in other things ; but 
he wrote them rather to entertain himself, than 
to merit the laurel. 

I shall here add one which has not been yet 
printed, and it is not unlikely it was the last he 
wrote. It is a paraphrase on Simeon's Song ; 
I take it from his blotted copy not at all finished, 
so the reader is to make allowance for any im^ 
perfection he may find in it. 

" Blessed Creator, wlio before the birth 

Of time, or ere the pillars of the earth 

Were fixed or formed, didst hiy that great design 

Of man's redemption, and didst then define 

In thine eterpal cpunspls all thp scene 

Pftbat stupendous business, and when 



MATTHEW HALE. 61 

It should appear, and though the very day 

Of its Epiphany concealed lay 

Within thy mind, yet thou wert pleased to show 

Some glimpses of it unto men below, 

In visions, types, and prophecies, as we 

Things at a distance in perspective see: 

But thou wert pleased to let thy servant know 

That that blest hour, that seemed to move so slow 

Through former ages, should at last attain 

Its time, ere my few sands that yet remain 

Are spent ; and that these aged eyes 

Should see the day when Jacob's star should rise. 

And now thou hast fulfilled it, blessed Lord, 

Dismiss nie now, according to thy word ; 

And let my aged body now return 

To rest, and dust, and drop into an urn ; 

For I have lived enough, mine eyes have seen 

Thy much-desired salvation, that hath been 

So long, so dearly wisiied ; the joy, the hope 

Of all the ancient patriarchs, the scope 

Of all the prophecies and mysteries, 

Of all tlie types unveiled, the histories 

Of Jewish church unriddled, and the bright 

And orient sun arisen to give light 

To Gentiles, and the joy of Israel, 

The world's Uedeemer, blest Immanuel. 

Let this sigjjt close mine eyes, 'tis loss to see, 

After this vision, any sight but Thee." 

Thus he used to sing on the former Christmas 
days, hut now he was to be admitted to bear his 
part in the new songs above ; so that day which 
he had spent in so much spiritual joy, proved to 
be indeed the day of his jubilee and deliverance ; 
for between two and three in the afternoon, he 
breathed out his righteous and pious soul. His 
end was peace ; he had no strugglings, nor 
seemed to be in any pangs in his last moments. 
He was buried on the 4th of January ; Mr. 
Griffith preaching the funeral sermon, from the 
57th of Isaiah, 1st verse, " The righteous per- 
isheth, and no man layeth it to heart; and 
merciful men are taken away, none considering 
that the righteous is taken away from the evil 
to come." Which how fitly it was applicable 
6* 



62 MATTHEW HALE. 

upon this occasion, all that consider the course 
of his life will easily conclude. He was interred 
in the church-yard of Alderley, among his an- 
cestors. He did not much approve of burying 
in churches, and used to say, the churches were 
for the living, and the church-yards for the dead. 
His monument was, like himself, decent and 
plain ; the tombstone was black marble, and 
the sides were black and white marble, upon 
which he himself had ordered this bare and 
humble inscription to be made : 

HERE LIES INTERRED 

THE BODY OF 

MATTHEW HALE, A SOLDIER; 

OF ROBERT HALE, HIS ONLY CHILD, 

AND OF JOANNA, HIS WIFE. 

THE FIRST WAS BORN IN THIS PARISH OP 
ALDERLEY, ON THE FIRST DAY OF NOVEM- 
BER, IN THE YEAR OF OUR LORD 1609. 
HE DIED IN THE SAME PLACE, ON 
THE 25th day OF DECEMBERj 
IN THE YEAR OF OUR LORD 

1676, AGED 67. 



MATTHEW HALE. 63 



CHAPTER VI. 



JUDGE HALe's character .... his early rising.... 
HIS OPINIONS OF CIVIL LAW, AND OF PLEAD- 
INGS .... HIS ELOQUENCE... HIS IDEA OF CREATION. 

Having thus given an account of the most 
remarkable things of his life, I am now to pre- 
sent the reader with such a character of him as 
the laying his several virtues together will 
amount to; in which I know how difficult a task 
I undertake : for to write defectively of him were 
to injure him, and lessen the memory of one to 
whom I intend to do all the justice that is in 
my power. On the other hand, there is so much 
here to be commended, and proposed for the 
imitation of others, that I am afraid some may 
imagine I am rather making a picture of him 
from an abstracted idea of great virtues and 
perfections, than setting him out as he truly 
was : but there is great encouragement in this, 
that I write concerning a man so fresh in all 
people's remembrance, that is so lately dead, 
and was so much and so well known, that I 
shall have many vouchers, who will be ready to 
justify me in all that I am to relate, and to add 
a great deal to what I can say. 

It has appeared in the account of his various 
learning, how great his capacities were, and 
how much they were improved by constant 



64 MATTHEW HALE. 

Study : he rose always early in the morning ; 
he loved to walk much abroad, not only for his 
health, but he thought it oj)ened his mind, and 
enlarged his thoughts, to have the creation of 
God before his eyes. When he set himself to 
any study, he used to cast his design in a scheme, 
which he did with a great exactness of method. 
He took nothing on trust, but pursued his in- 
quiries as far as they could go ; and as he was 
humble enough to confess his ignorance, and 
submit to mysteries which he could not compre- 
hend, so he was not easily imposed on by any 
shows of reason, or the bugbears of vulgar opin- 
ions : he brought all his knowledge as much to 
scientific principles as he possibly could, which 
made him neglect the study of tongues, for the 
bent of his mind lay another way. Discoursing 
once of this to some, they said, they looked on 
the common law as a study that could not be 
brought into a scheme, nor formed into a ration- 
al science, by reason of the indigestedness of it, 
and the multiplicity of the cases in it, which 
rendered it very hard to be understood, or re- 
duced into a method; but he said, he was not 
of their mind, and so quickly after, he drew 
with his own hand a scheme of the whole order 
and parts of it, in a large sheet of paper, to the 
great satisfaction of those to whom he sent it. 
Upon this hint, some pressed him to compile a 
body of the English law : it could hardly ever 
be done by a man who knew it better, and 
would with more judgment and industry have 
put it into method ; but he said, as it was a 
great and noble design, which would be of vast 



Matthew hale. 65 

advantage to the nation ; so it was too much 
for a private man to undertake : It was not to be 
entered upon but by the command of a prince, 
and with the communicated endeavours of some 
of the most eminent of the profession. 

He had great vivacity in his fancy, as may 
appear by his inclination to poetry, and the 
lively illustrations of many tender strains in his 
contemplations ; but he looked on eloquence 
and wit as things to be used very chastely in 
serious matters, which should come under a 
severer inquiry : therefore he was, both when 
at the bar and on the bench, a great enemy to 
all eloquence or rhetoric in pleading : he said, 
if the judge or jury had a right understanding, 
it signified nothing but a waste of time and loss 
of words; and if they were weak, and easy 
wrought on, it was a more decent way of cor- 
rupting them, by bribing their fancies, and bi- 
assing their affections ; and wondered much at 
that affectation of the French lawyers in imi- 
tating the Roman orators in their pleadings. 
For the oratory of the Romans was occasioned 
by their popular government, and the factions 
of the city, so that those who intended to excel 
in the pleading of causes, were trained up in 
the schools of the rhetoricians till they became 
ready and expert in that luscious way of discourse. 
It is true, the composures of such a man as 
Tully was, who mixed an extraordinary quick- 
nes, and exact judgment, and a just decorum 
with his skill in rhetoric, do still entertain the 
readers of them with great pleasure : but at the 
same time it must be acknowledged, that there 



66 " MATTHEW HALE. 

is not that chastity of style, that closeness of 
reasoning, nor that justness of figures in his 
ora.tions, that are in his other writings ; so that 
a great deal was said by him, rather because he 
knew it would be acceptable to his auditors, 
than that it was ajDproved of by himself : and 
all who read them will acknowledge they are 
better pleased with them as essays of wit and 
style, than as pleadings, by which such a judge 
as ours was would not be much wrought upon. 
And, if there are such grounds to censure the 
perforrnancesof the greatest master in eloquence, 
we may easily infer what nauseous discourses 
the other orators made, since in oratory, as well 
as in poetry, none can do indifferently. So our 
judge wondered to find the French, that live 
under a monarchy, so fond of imitating that 
which was an ill effect of the popular govern- 
ment of Rome : he therefore pleaded himself 
always in few words, and close to the point : 
and when he was a judge, he held those that 
pleaded before him to the main hinge of the 
business, and cut them short when they made 
excursions about circumstances of no moment, 
by which he saved much time, and made the 
chief difficulties to be well stated and cleared. 
There was another custom among the Ro- 
mans, which he as much admired, as he despised 
their rhetoric, which was, tiiat the jurisconsults 
were the men of the highest quality, who were 
bred to be capable of the chief employment in 
the state, and became the great masters of their 
law : these gave their opinions of all cases that 
were put to them freely, judging it below them 



MATTHEW HALE. 67 

to take any present for it ; and indeed they only 
were the true lawyers among them, whose reso- 
lutions were of that authority, that they made 
one clcissis of those materials out of which Tre- 
bonian compiled the digests under Justinian ; 
for the orators, or causidici that pleaded causes, 
knew little of the law, and only employed their 
mercenary tongues to work on the affections of 
the people and senate, or the prsetors : even in 
most of Tully's Orations there is little of law : 
and that little which they might sprinkle in their 
declamations, they had not from their own 
knowledge, but the resolution of some juriscon- 
sult • according to that famous story of Servius 
Sulpitius, who was a celebrated orator, and 
being to receive the resolution of one of those 
that were learned in the lav/, was so ignorant, 
that he could not understand it ; upon which 
the jurisconsult reproached him, and said, it 
was a shame for him that was a nobleman, a 
senator, and a pleader of causes, to be thus ig- 
norant of law : this touched him so sensibly, 
that he set about the study of it, and became 
one of the most eminent jurisconsults that ever 
were at Rome. Our judge thought it might 
become the greatness of a prince to encourage 
such a sort of men and of studies ; in which, 
none in the age he lived in was equal to the 
great Selden, who was truly in our English law, 
what the old Roman jurisconsults were in theirs. 
But where a decent eloquence was allowable, 
Judge Hale knew how to have excelled as much 
as any, either in illustrating his reasonings by 
proper and well pursued similes, or by such 



68 MATTHEW HALE. 

tender expressions as might work most on the 
affections, so that the present lord chancellor 
has often said of him since his death, that he 
was the greatest orator he had known ; for 
though his words came not fluently from him, 
yet when they were out, they were the most 
significant and expressive that the matter could 
bear : of this sort there are many in his Con- 
templations, made to quicken his own devotion, 
which have a life in them becoming him that 
used them, and a softness fit to melt even the 
harshest tempers, accommodated to the gravity 
of the subject, and apt to excite warm thoughts 
in the readers ; that as they show his excellent 
temper that brought them out and applied them 
to himself, so they are of great use to all who 
would both inform and quicken their minds. 
Of his illustrations of things by proper similes, I 
shall here give a large instance out of his book of 
the Origination of Mankind, designed to expose 
the different hypotheses the philosophers fell on 
concerning the eternity and original of the 
universe, and to prefer the account given by 
Moses to all their conjectures ; in which, if my 
taste does not misguide me, the reader will find 
a rare and very agreeable mixture, both of fine 
wit, and solid learning and judgment. 

" That which may illustrate my meaning, in 
this preference of the revealed light of the holy 
scriptures, touching this matter, above the essays 
of a philosophical imagination, may be this. 
Suppose that Greece was unacquainted with the 
curiosity of mechanical engines, though known 
in some remote region of the world, and that an 



MATTHEW HALE. 69 

excellent artist had secretly brought and de- 
posited in some field or forest, some excellent 
watch or clock, which had been so formed that 
the original of its motion was hidden, and in- 
volved in some close contrived piece of mechan- 
ism ; that this watch Vv^as so framed, that the 
motion thereof might have lasted a year, or 
some such time as might give a reasonable pe- 
riod for their philosophical descantings concern- 
ing it ; and that in the plain table there had 
been not only the description and indication of 
hours, but the configurations and indications of 
the various phases of the moon, the motion and 
place of the sun in the ecliptic, and divers other 
curious indications of celestial motions ; and 
that the scholars of the several schools, of Epi- 
curus, of Aristotle, of Plato, and the rest of 
those philosophical sects, had casually in their 
walk found this admirable automaton ; what 
kind of work would there have been made by 
every sect, in giving an account of this phenom- 
enon ? We should have had the Epicurean 
sect have told the bystanders, according to their 
preconceived hypothesis, that this vvas nothing 
else but an accidental concretion of atoms, that 
haply fallen together had made up the index, 
the wheels, and the balance ; and that being 
haply fallen into this position, they were put 
into motion. Then the Cartesian falls in with 
him as to the main of their supposition, but tells 
him he doth not sufficiently explicate how the 
engine is put into motion, and therefore to furnish 
this motion there is a certain subtile material 
that pervades this engine ; and the moveable; 
7 



70 MATTHEW HALE. 

parts, consisting of several globular atoms apt 
for motion, they are thereby, and by the mobility 
of the globular atoms, put into motion. A third 
finding fault with the two former, because those 
motions are so regular, and do express the vari- 
ous phenomena of the distribution of time, and 
of the heavenly motions; therefore it seems to 
him that this engine and motion also, so ana- 
logical to the motions of the heavens, was 
wrought by some admirable conjunction of the 
heavenly bodies, which formed this instrument 
and its motions in such an admirable corres- 
pondency to its own existence. A fourth, dis- 
liking the suppositions of the three former, tells 
the rest that he hath a more plain and evident 
solution of the phenomenon ; namely, The 
universal soul of the world, or spirit of nature, 
that formed so many sorts of insects with so many 
organs, faculties, and such congruity of their 
whole composition, and such curious and various 
motions as we may observe in them, hath formed 
and set into motion this admirable automaton, 
and regulated and ordered it with all these con- 
gruities we see in it. Then steps in an Aristo- 
telian, and being dissatisfied with all the former 
solutions, tells them, ' Gentlemen, you are all 
mistaken ; your solutions are inexplicable and 
unsatisfactory ; you have taken up certain pre- 
carious hypotheses, and being prepossessed with 
these creatures of your own fancies, and in love 
with them, right or wrong, you form all your 
conceptions of things according to those fancied 
and preconceived imaginations. The short of 
the business is, this machina is eternal, and so 



MATTHEW HALE. 71 

are all the motions of it ; and inasmuch as a 
circular motion hath no beginning or end, this 
motion that you see both in the wheels and index, 
and the successive indications of the celestial 
motions, is eternal, and without beginning. 
And this is a ready and expedite way of solving 
the phenomena, without so much ado as you 
have made about it.' 

*' And whilst all the masters were thus con- 
triving the solution of the phenomenon, in the 
hearing of the artist that made it ; and when 
they had all spent their philosophizing upon it, 
the artist that made this engine, and all this 
while listened to their admirable fancies, tells 
them, ' Gentlemen, you have discovered very 
much excellency of invention touching this 
piece of work that is before you, but you are all 
miserably mistaken : for it was 1 that made this 
watch, and brought it hither, and I will show 
you how I made it. First, I wrought the 
spring, and the fusee, and the wheels, and the 
balance, and the case, and table ; I fitted them 
one to another, and placed these several axes 
that are to direct the motions, of the index to 
discover the hour of the day, of the figure that 
discovers the phases of the moon, and the other 
various motions that you see ; and then I put it 
together, and wound up the spring, which hath 
given all these motions that you see in this cu- 
rious piece of work : and that you may be sure 
I tell you true, I will tell you the whole order 
and progress of my making, disposing, and 
ordering of this piece of vyork, the several mate-? 



72 MATTHEW HALE. 

rials of it, the manner of the forming of every 
individual part of it, and how long f vi'as about it.' 
" This plain and evident discovery renders all 
these excogitated hypotheses of those philosoph- 
ical enthusiasts vain and ridiculous, without any 
great help of rhetorical flourishes, or logical 
confutations. And much of the same nature is 
that disparity of the hypotheses of the learned 
philosophers in relation to the origination of the 
world and man. after a great deal of dust raised, 
and fanciful explications and unintelligible hy- 
potheses. The plain but Divine narrative by 
the hand of Moses, full of sense, and congruity, 
and clearness, and reasonableness in itself, does 
at the same moment give us a true and clear 
discovery of this great mystery, and renders all 
the essays of the generality of the heathen phi- 
losophers to be vain, inevident, and indeed 
inexplicable theories, the creatures of phantasy 
and imagination, and nothing else." 



CHAPTER VII. 

JUDGE HALE's piety HIS IMPARTIALITY AS A 

JUDGE.... HIS GENEROSITY HIS BENEVOL^JXCE 

TO THE POOR.... HIS FORGIVING TEMPER. 

His virtues have appeared so conspicuous in 
all the several transactions and turns of his life, 
that it may seem needless to add any more of 



MATTHEW HALK. 73 

them than has been already related ; but there 
are many particular instances which I knew 
not how to fit to the several years of his life, which 
will give us a clearer and better view of him. 
He was a devout Christian, a sincere Pro- 
testant, and a true friend to all Christians ; 
moderate towards dissenters, and just even to 
those from whom he differed most ; which ap- 
peared signally in the care he took of preserving 
the Quakers from that mischief that was like to 
fall on them by declaring their marriages void, 
and so making their children illegitimates ; but 
he considered marriage and succession as a 
right of nature, from which none ought to be 
barred, what mistake soever they might be under 
in the points of revealed religion. 

And therefore in a trial that was before him, 
when a Quaker was sued for some debts owing 
by his wife before he married her, and the 
Quaker's counsel pretended, that it was no 
marriage that had passed between them, since 
it was not solemnized according to the rules of 
the church of England ; he declared, that he 
was not willing on his own opinion to make 
their children illegitimates, and gave directions 
to the jury to find it special. It was a reflection 
on the whole party, that one of them, to avoid 
an inconvenience he had fallen in, thought to 
have preserved himself by a defence, that, if it 
had been allowed in law, must have made their 
whole issue illegitimates, and incapable of suc- 
cession ; and for all their pretended friendship 
to one another, if this judge had not been more 
their friend than one of those they so called. 



74 MATTHEW HALE. 

their posterity had been little beholden to them. 
But he governed himself indeed by the law of 
the Gospel, of doing to others what he would 
have others do to him ; and therefore, because 
he would have thought it a hardsiiip not without 
cruelty, if amongst papists all marriages were 
nulled which had not been made with all the 
ceremonies in the Roman ritual, so he, apply- 
ing this to the case of the sectaries, thought all 
marriages, made according to the several per- 
suasions of men, ought to have their effects in 
law. 

He used constantly to worship God in his 
family, performing it always himself, if there 
was no clergyman present. But, as to his pri- 
vate exercises in devotion, he took that extraor- 
dinary care to keep what he did secret, that 
this part of his character must be defective, 
except it be acknowledged that his humility in 
covering it commends him much more than the 
highest expressions of devotion could have done. 
From the first time that the impressions of 
religion settled deeply in his mind, he used 
great caution to conceal it : not only in obedi- 
ence to the rules given by our Saviour of fasting, 
praying, and giving alms in secret ; but from a 
particular distrust he had of himself, for he said 
he was afraid he should at some time or other 
do some enormous thing, which, if he were 
looked on as a very religious man, might cast a 
reproach on the profession of it, and give great 
advantages to impious men to blaspheme the 
name of God. But a tree is knovvn by its fruits ; 
and he lived not only free from blemishes or 



MATTHEW HALE. 75 

scandal, but shined in all the parts of his con- 
versation. And perhaps the distrust he was in 
of himself contributed not a little to the purity 
of his life ; for he being thereby obliged to be 
inore watchful over himself, and to depend more 
on the aids of the Spirit of God, no wonder if 
that humble temper produced those excellent 
effects in him. 

He had a soul enlarged and raised above that 
mean appetite of loving money, which is gen- 
erally the root of all evil. He did not take the 
profits that he might have had by his practice ; 
for in common cases, when those who came to 
ask his counsel gave him one pound, he used to 
give back the half, and so made ten shillings 
his fee, in ordinary matters that did not require 
much time or study. If he saw a cause was 
unjust, he for a great while would not meddle 
further in it, but to give his advice that it was 
so; if the parties, after that, would go on, they 
were to seek another counsellor, for he would 
assist none in acts of injustice : if he found the 
cause doubtful or weak in point of law, he 
always advised his clients to agree their busi- 
ness. Yet afterwards he abated much of the 
scrupulosity he had about causes that appeared 
at first view unjust, upon this occasion : There 
were tu'o causes brought to him, which by the 
ignorance of the party or their attorney, were 
so ill represented to him, that they seemed to 
be very bad, but he inquiring more narrowly 
into them, found they were really very good and 
just ; so after this, he slackened much of his 
former strictness, of refusing to meddle in 



76 MATTHEW HALE. 

causes upon the ill circumstances that appeared 
in them at first. 

In his pleading he abhorred those too common 
faults of misreciting evidences, quoting prece- 
dents or books falsely, or asserting things con- 
fidently ; by which ignorant juries or weak 
judges are too often wrought on. He pleaded 
with the same sincerity that he used in the 
other parts of his life, and used to say it was as 
great a dishonour as a man was capable of, that 
for a little money he was to be hired to say or 
do otherwise than as he thought. All this he 
ascribed to the unmeasurable desire of heaping 
up wealth, which corrupted the souls of some 
that seemed to be otherwise born and made for 
great things. 

When he was a practitioner, differences were 
often referred to him, which he settled, but 
would accept of no reward for his pains, though 
offered by both parties together, after the 
agreement was made ; for he said in those 
cases he was made a judge, and a judge ought 
to take no money. If they told him he lost 
much of his time in considering their business, 
and so ought to be acknowledged for it ; his 
answer was, as one that heard it told me, *' Can 
I spend my time better, than to make people 
friends? Must I have no time allowed me to 
do good in ? 

He was naturally a quick man, yet by much 
practice on himself, he subdued that to such a 
a degree, that he would never run suddenly into 
any conclusion on matters of importance. Festi- 
na lente, "hasten slowly," was his beloved motto, 



MATTHEW HALE. 77 

which he ordered to be engraven on the head 
of his staff, and was often heard to say that he 
had observed many witty men run into great 
errors, because they did not give themselves 
time to think, but the heat of imagination making 
some notions appear in good colours to them, 
they, without staying till that cooled, were vio- 
lently led by the impulses it made on them ; 
whereas calm and slow men, who pass for dull 
in the common estimation, could search after 
truth and find it out, as with more deliberation, 
so with greater certainty. 

He laid aside the tenth penny of all he got 
for the poor, and took great care to be well 
informed of proper objects for his charities ; and 
after he was a judge, many of the perquisites of 
his place, as his dividend of the rule and box- 
money, were sent by him to the gaols to dis- 
charge poor prisoners, M'ho never knew from 
whose hands their relief came. It is also a 
custom for the marshal of the King's Bench to 
present the judges of that court with a piece ot 
plate for a new year's gift, that for the Chiet 
Justice being larger than the rest. This he 
intended to have refused, but the other judges 
told him it belonged to his office, and the re- 
fusing it would be a prejudice to his successors, 
so he was persuaded to take it ; but he sent 
word to the marshal, that instead of plate, he 
should bring him the value of it in money, and 
when he received it, he immediately sent it to 
the prisons, for the relief and discharge of the 
poor there. He usually invited his poor neigh- 
bours to dine with him, and made them sit at 



78 MATTHEW HALE. 

table with himself: and if any of them were 
sick, so that they could not come, he would 
send meat warm to them from his table : and 
he did not only relieve the poor in his own 
parish, but sent supplies to the neighbouring 
parishes, as there was occasion for it : and he 
treated them all with the tenderness and famil- 
iarity that became one, who considered they 
were of the same nature with himself, and were 
reduced to no other necessities but such as he 
himself might be brought to. But for common 
beggars, if any of these came to him, as he was 
in his walks, when he lived in the country, he 
would ask such as were capable of working, 
why they went about so idly ? If they answered, 
it was because they could find no work, he often 
sent them to some field, to gather all the stones 
in it, and lay them on a heap, and then would 
pay them liberally for their pains. This being 
done, he used to send his carts, and caused 
them to be carried to such places of the high- 
way as needed mending. 

But when he was in town, he dealt his chari- 
ties very liberally, even among the street beggars. 
And when some told him, that he thereby en- 
couraged idleness, and that most of these were 
notorious cheats, he used to answer, that he 
believed most of them were such, but among 
them there were some that were great objects 
of charity, and pressed with grievous necessities; 
and that he had rather give his alms to twenty 
who might, perhaps, be rogues, than that one of 
the other sort should perish for want of that 
small relief which he gave them. 



'MATTHEW HALE. "79 

He loved building much, which he affected 
chiefly because it employed many poor people ; 
but one thing was observed in all his buildings, 
that the change he made in his houses was 
always from magnificence to usefulness ; for he 
avoided every thing that looked like pomp or 
vanity, even in the walls of his houses. He had 
good judgment in architecture, and an excellent 
faculty in contriving well. 

He was a gentle landlord to all his tenants, 
and was ever ready, upon any reasonable com- 
plaints, to make abatements ; for he was merci- 
ful as well as righteous. One instance of this 
was, of a widow that lived in London, and had 
a small estate near his house in the country, 
from which her rents were ill returned to her, 
and at a cost which she could not well bear ; 
so she bemoaned herself to him, and he, accord- 
ing to bis readiness to assist all poor people, told 
her he would order his steward to take up her 
rents, and the returning them should cost her 
nothing. But after that, when there was a 
falling of rents in that country, so that it was 
necessary to make abatements to the tenant, 
yet he would have it to lie on himself, and made 
the widow be paid her rent as formerly. 

Another remarkable instance of his justice and 
goodness was, that when he found counterfeit 
money had been put into his hands, he would nev- 
er suffer it to be vented again, for he thought it 
was no excuse for him to put false money in 
other people's hands because some had put it in 
his. A great heap of this he had gathered 
together ; for many had so far abused his good- 



80 MATTHEW HALE.-' 

ness as to mix base money among the fees that 
were given him. It is likely he intended to 
have destroyed it ; but some thieves, who had 
observed it, broke into his chamber and stole it, 
thinking they had got a prize ; which he used 
to tell with some pleasure, imagining how they 
found themselves deceived when they perceived 
what sort of booty they had fallen on. 

After he was made a judge, he would needs 
pay more for every purchase he made than it 
was worth. If it had been but a horse he was 
to buy, he would outbid the price : and when 
some represented to him that he made ill bar- 
gains, he said, it became judges to pay more for 
what they bought than the true value, that so 
those with whom they dealt might not think 
they had any right to their favour, by having 
sold such things to them at an easy rate ; and 
said it was suitable to the reputation which a 
judge ought to preserve to make such bargains, 
that the world might see they were not too well 
used upon some secret account. 

In fine, his estate showed how little he had 
minded the raising a great fortune ; for, from a 
hundred pounds a year, he raised it not quite 
to nine hundred ;' and of this, a very consider- 
able part came in by his share of Mr. Selden's 
estate ; yet this, considering his gretit practice 
while a counsellor, and his constant frugal and 
modest way of living, was but a small fortune. 
In the share that fell to him by Mr. Selden's 
will, one memorable thing was done by him 
with the other executors, by which they both 
showed their regard to their dead friend, and. 



MATTHEW HALE. 81 

their love of the public. His library was valued 
at some thousands of pounds, and was believed 
to be one of the most curious collections in 
Europe ; so they resolved to keep this entire 
for the honour of Selden's memory, and gave it 
to the University of Oxford, where a noble room 
was added to the former library for its reception ; 
and all due respects have been since showed 
by that great and learned body to those their 
worthy benefactors, who not only parted so gen- 
erously with this great treasure, but were a 
little put to it liovv to oblige them without cross- 
ing the will of their dead friend. Mr. Selden 
had once intended to give his library to that 
university, and had left it so by his will ; but, 
having occasion for a manuscript which belong- 
ed to their library, they asked of him a bond of 
a thousand pounds for its restitution. This he 
took so ill at their hands, that he struck out 
that part of his vvill by which he had given them 
his library, and with decision, declared they 
should never have it. The executors stuck at 
this a little, but, having considered better of it, 
came to this resolution : that they were to be 
the executors of Mr. Selden's will, and not of 
his passion ; so they made good what he had 
intended in cold blood, and passed over what 
his passion had suggested to him. 

The parting with so many excellent books 
would have been as uneasy to our Judge as any 
thing of that nature could be, if a pious regard 
to his friend's memory had not prevailed over 
him, for he valued books and manuscripts above 
all things in the world : he himself had made a 



83 MATTHf:W HALE. 

great and rare collection of manuscripts belong- 
ing to the law of England ; he was forty years 
in gathering it ; he himself said it cost him 
about fifteen hundred pounds, and calls it, in 
his will, a treasure worth having and keeping, 
and not fit for every man's view. These all he 
left to Lincoln's-Tnn. 

By all these instances it does appear hovv 
much he was raised above the world, or the love 
of it. But having thus mastered things without 
him, his next study was to overcome his own 
inclinations. He was, as he said himself, nat- 
urally passionate ; I add, as he said himself, for 
that appeared by no other evidence, save that 
sometimes his colour would rise a little ; but he 
so governed himself, that those who lived long 
about him have told me, they never saw him 
disordered with anger, though he met with some 
trials that the nature of man is as little able to 
bear as any whatsoever. 

There was one who did him a great injury, 
which it is not necessary to mention, who coming 
afterwards to hiin for his advice in the settle- 
ment of his estate, he gave it very frankly to 
him, but would accept of no fee for it, and 
thereby showed both that he could forgive as a 
Christian, and that he had the soul of a gentle- 
man in him, not to take money of one that had 
wronged him so heinously. And when he was 
asked by one how he could use a man so kindly 
that had wronged him so much, his answer was, 
he thanked God he had learned to forget injuries. 



MATTHEW HALE. 83 



CHAPTER VIII. 

JUDGE HALE IN HIS FAMILY HIS PITY FOR 

CRIMINALS .... HIS CARE OF BEASTS .... HIS LOVE 

TO STUDIOUS YOUNG PERSONS HIS IDEAS OF 

GOD. 

Besides the great temper he expressed in all 
his public employments, in his family he was a 
very gentle master : he was tender of all his 
servants; he never turned any away, except they 
were so faulty that there was no hope of re- 
claiming them : when any of them had been 
long out of the way, or had neglected any part 
of their duty, he would not see them at their 
first coming home, and sometimes not till the 
next day, lest, when his displeasure was quick 
upon him, he might have chid them indecently ; 
and when he did reprove them, he did it with 
that sweetness and gravity, that it appeared he 
was more concerned for their having done a 
fault, than for the offence given by it to himself: 
but if they became immoral or unruly, then he 
turned them away, for he said, he that by his 
place ought to punish disorders in other people, 
must by no means suffer them in his own house. 
He advanced his servants according to the time 
they had been about him, and would never give 
occasion to envy among tliem, by raising the 



84 MATTHEW HALE. 

younger clerks above those who had been longer 
with him. He treated them all with great 
affection, rather as a friend than a master, giving 
them often good advice and instruction. He 
made those who had good places under him 
give some of their profits to the other servants, 
who had nothinsj but their waores. When he 
made his will, he left legacies to every one of 
them ; but he expressed a more particular kind- 
ness for one of them, Robert Gibbon, Esq., of 
the Middle Temple, in whom he had that con- 
fidence that he left him one of his executors. 
I the rather mention him, because of his noble 
gratitude to his worthy benefactor and master ; 
for he has been so careful to preserve his mem- 
ory, as to urge those on me at whose desire 
I undertook to write his life, and has procured 
for me a great part of those memorials and in- 
formations out of v»'hich I have composed it. 

Judge Hale was of a most tender and com- 
passionate nature ; this did eminently appear in 
his trying and giving sentence upon criminals, 
in which he was strictly careful that not a cir- 
cumstance should be neglected which might 
any way clear the fact. He behaved himself 
with that regard to the y)risoners, which became 
both the gravity of a Judge, and the pity that 
was due to men whose lives lay at stake, so that 
nothing of jeering or unreasonable severity ever 
fell fVom him. He also examined the witnesses 
in the softest manner, taking care that they 
should be put under no confusion which might 
disorder their memory ; and he summed up all 
the evidence so equally v.iien he charged Iho 



MATTHEW HALE. 85 

jury, that the criminals themselves never com- 
plained of him. When it came to him to give 
sentence, he did it with that composedness and 
decency, and his speeches to the prisoners, di- 
recting them to prepare for death, were so 
weighty, so free from all affectation, and so 
serious and devout, that many loved to go to 
the trials when he sat Judge, to be edified by 
his speeches and behaviour in them ; and used 
to say, they heard very few such sermons. 

But though the pronouncing of the sentence 
of death was the piece of his employment that 
went most against the grain with him : yet in 
that he could never be mollified to any tender- 
ness which hindered justice. When he was 
once pressed to recommend some, whom he had 
condemned, to his majesty's mercy and pardon; 
he answered, he could not think they deserved 
a pardon, whom he himself had adjudged to die; 
so that all he would do in that kind was to give 
the King a true account of the circumstances of 
the fact ; after which his majesty was to consid- 
er whether he would interpose his mercy, or let 
justice take place. 

His mercifulness extended even to his beasts ; 
for when the horses that he had kept long, grew 
old, he would not suffer them to be sold, or 
much worked, but ordered his men to turn 
them loose on his grounds, and put them only 
to easy work, such as going to market and the 
like : he used old dogs also with the same care ; 
his shepherd having one that was become blind 
with age, he intended to have killed or lost 
him, but the Judge coming to hear of it, made 
8* 



86 MATTHEW MALE. 

one of his servants bring him home, and Ced 
him till he died : and he was scarce ever seen 
more angry than with one of his servants for 
neglecting a bird that he kept, so that it died 
for want of food. 

He was a great encourager of all yonng per- 
sons that he saw followed their books diligently; 
to whom he used to give directions concerning 
the method of their study, with a humanity and 
sweetness that wrought much on all that came 
near him : and in a smiling, pleasant way he 
would admonish them if he saw any thing amiss 
in them ; particularly, if they went too fine in 
their clothes, he would tell them it did not be- 
come their profession. He was not pleased to 
see students wear long periwigs, or attorneys to 
go with swords ; so that such young men as 
would not be persuaded to part with those vani- 
ties, when they went to him laid them aside, 
and went as plain as they could, to avoid the 
reproof which they knew they might otherwise 
expect. 

He was very free and communicative in his 
discourse, which he most commonly fixed on 
some good and useful subject, and loved for an 
hour or two at night to be visited by some of 
his friends. He neither said nor did any thing 
with affectation, but used a simplicity that was 
both natural to himself and very easy to others. 
And though he never studied the modes of 
civility or court breeding, yet he knew not what 
it was to be rude or harsh with any, except he 
were impertinently addressed to in matters of 



MATTHEW HALE. 87 

justice ; then he would raise his voice a little, 
and so shake off those importunities. 

In his furniture, and the service of his table, 
and way of living, he liked the old plainness so 
well, that as he would set up none of the new 
fashions, so he rather affected a coarseness in 
the use of the old ones : which was more the 
effect of his philosophy than disposition, for he 
loved fine things too much at first : he was 
always of an equal temper, rather cheerful than 
merry. Many wondered to see the evenness of 
his deportment in some very sad passages of 
his life. 

Having lost one of his sons, the manner of 
whose death had some grievous circumstances 
in it ; one coming to see him and condole, he 
said to him, those were the effects of living long; 
such must look to see many sad and unaccepta- 
ble things ; and having said that, he went to 
other discourses with his ordinary freedom of 
mind ; for though he had a temper so tender 
that sad things were apt enough to make deep 
impressions upon him, yet the regard he had to 
the wisdom and providence of God, and the just 
estimate he made of all external things, did to 
admiration maintain the tranquillity of his mind ; 
and he gave no occasion by idleness or melan- 
choly to corrupt his spirit ; but by the perpetual 
bent of his thoughts, he knew well how to divert 
them from being oppressed with the excesses of 
sorrow. 

He had a generous and noble idea of God in 
his mind, and this he found did above all other 
considerations preserve his quiet : and indeed 



88 MATTHEW HALE. 

that was so well established in him, that no 
accidents, how sudden soever, were observed to 
discompose him : of which an eminent man of 
that profession gave me this instance. In the 
year 1666, an opinion did run through the na- 
tion that the end of the world would come that 
yejar : this, whether set on by astrologers, or 
advanced by those who thought it might have 
some relation to the number of the beast in the 
Revelation, or promoted by men of ill designs 
to disturb the public peace, had spread mightily 
among the people ; and Judge Hale going that 
year the western circuit, it happened that as he 
was on the bench at the assizes, a most terrible 
storm fell out very unexpectedly, accompanied 
with such flashes of lightning, and claps of 
thunder, that the like v.'ill hardly fall out in an 
age ; upon which a whisper or rumour ran 
through the crowd, that now was the world to 
end, and the day of judgment to begin. At 
this there followed a general consternation in 
th(j whole assembly, and all men forgot the 
business they were met about, and betook them- 
selves to their prayers : this, added to the horror 
raised by the storm, looked very dismally ; inso- 
much that my author, a man of no ordinary 
resolution and firmness of mind, confessed it 
made a great impression on himself But he 
told me, that he did observe the Judge was not 
a whit affected, and was going on with the 
business of the court in his ordinary manner ; 
from which he made this conclusion, that his 
thoughts were so well fixed, that he believed if 
the world had been really to end, it would have 
given him no considerable disturbance. 



MATTHEW HALE. 89 

But I shall now conclude all that I shall say 
concerning him, with what one of the greatest 
men of the profession of the law sent me as an 
abstract of tiie character he had made of hirn, 
upon long observation and much converse with 
him : it was sent me, tiiat from thence, with the 
other materials, I might make such a represen- 
tation of him to the world as he indeed deserved. 
But I resolved not to shred it out in parcels, but 
to set it down entirely as it was sent me; hoping 
that as the reader will be much delighted with 
it, so the noble person that sent it will not be 
offended with me for keeping it entire, and 
setting it in the best light I could. It begins 
abruptly, being designed to supply the defects 
of others, from whom I had earlier and more 
copious information. 

" He would never be brought to discourse of 
public matters in private conversation ; but in 
questions of law, when any young lawyer put a 
case to him, he was very communicative, espe- 
cially while he was at the bar ; but when he 
came to the bench, he grew more reserved, and 
would never suffer his opinion in any case to 
be known till he was obliged to declare it judi- 
cially ; and he concealed his opinion in great 
cases so carefully, that the rest of the Judges in 
the same court could never perceive it. His 
reason was, because every Judge ought to give 
sentence according to his own persuasion and 
conscience, and not to be swayed by any respect 
or deference to another man's opinion : and by 
this means it hath happened sometimes, that 
when all the barons of the exchequer had de]iv»* 



90 MATTHEW HALE. 

ered their opinions, and agreed in their reasons 
and arguments ; yet he coming to speak last, 
and differing in judgment from them, hath 
expressed himself with so much weight and 
solidity, that the barons have immediately re- 
tracted their votes and concurred with him. 
He hath sat as a Judge in all the courts of law, 
and in two of them as chief; but still wherever 
he sat, all business of consequence followed him, 
and no man was content to sit down by the 
judgment of any other court, till the case were 
brought before him, to see whether he were of 
the same mind ; and his opinion being once 
known, men did readily acquiesce in it ; and it 
w^as very rarely seen that any man attempted to 
bring it about again ; and he that did so, did it 
upon great disadvantages, and was always look- 
ed upon as a very contentious person ; so that 
what Cicero says of i3rutus, did very often 
happen to him, ' Those against whom he decided, 
he dismissed satisfied and appeased.' 

*' Nor did men reverence his judgment and 
opinion in courts of law only ; but his authority 
was as great in courts of equity, and the same 
respect and submission wvas paid to him there 
too. And this appeared not only in his own 
court of equity in the exchequer chamber, but 
in the chancery too, for thither he was often 
called to advise and assist the lord chancellor, 
or lord keeper for the time being ; and if the 
cause were of difficult examination, or intricate, 
and entangled with variety of settlements, no 
man ever showed a more clear and discerning 
judgment. If it were of great value, and great 



MATTHEW HALE. 91 

persons interested in it, no man ever showed 
greater courage and integrity in laying aside all 
respect of persons. When he came to deliver 
his opinion, he always put his discourse into 
such a method, that one part of it gave light to 
the other; and where the ()roceedings of chan- 
cery might prove inconvenient to the subject, 
he never spared to observe and reprove them. 
And from his observations and discourses, the 
chancery hath taken occasion to establish many 
of those rules by which it governs itself at this 
day. 

''He did look upon equity as a part of the 
common law, and one of the grounds of it ; and 
therefore, as near as he could, he did always 
reduce it to certain rules and principles, that 
men might study it as a science, and not think 
the administration of it had any thing arbitrary 
in it. Thus eminent was this man in every 
station, and into what court soever he was called, 
he quickly made it appear that he deserved the 
chief seat there. 

" As great a lawyer as he was, he would 
never suffer the strictness of law to prevail 
against conscience ; as great a chancellor as he 
was, he would make use of all the niceties and 
subtleties in law, when it tended to support 
right and equity. But nothing was more ad- 
mirable in him than his patience. He did not 
affect the reputation of quickness and despatch 
by a hasty and captious hearing of the counsel: 
he would bear with the meanest, and gave every 
man his full scope, thinking it much better to 
lose time than patience. In summing up of an 



92 Mat!' HEW HAL£, 

evidence to a jury, he would always require the 
bar to interrupt him if he did mistake, and to 
put him in mind of it if he did forget the least 
circumstance. Some judges have been dis- 
turbed at this as rudeness, which he always 
looked upon as a service and respect done to 
him. 

" His whole life was nothing else but a con- 
tinual course of labour and industry; and when 
he could borrow any time from the public ser- 
vice, it was vvholly employed either in philo^ 
sophical or divine meditations, and even that 
was a public service too, as it hath proved ; for 
they have occasioned his writing of such trea-^ 
tises, as are become the choicest entertainment 
of wise and good men, and the world hath reason 
to wish that more of them were printed. He 
that considers the active part of his life, and 
with what unwearied diligence and application 
of mind he despatched all men's business which 
came under his care, will wonder how he could 
find any time for contemplation. He that con- 
siders again the various studies he passed 
through, and the many collections and obser- 
vations he hath made, may as justly wonder 
how he could find any time for action. But no 
man can wonder at the exemplary piety and 
innocence of such a life so spent as this was, 
wherein as he was careful to avoid every idle 
word, so it is manifest he never spent an idle 
day. They who come far short of this great 
man, will be apt enough to think that this is a 
panegyric, which indeed is a history, and but a 
little part of that history which was with great 



Matthew HALfi. 93 

truth to be related of him. Men who despair of 
attaining such peifection, are not willing to 
believe that any man else did ever arrive at 
such a height. 

" He was the greatest lawyer of the age, and 
might have had what practice he pleased ; but 
though he did most conscientiously affect the 
labours of his profession, yet at the same time 
he despised the gain of it ; and of those profits 
which he would allow himself to receive, he 
always set apart a tenth penny for the poor, 
which he ever dispensed with that secrecy, that 
they who were relieved seldom or never knew 
their benefactor. He took more pains to avoid 
the honours and preferments of office, than 
others do to obtain them. His modesty was 
beyond all example ; for* where some men who 
never attained to half his knowledge, have 
been puffed up with a high conceit of themselves, 
and have affected all occasions of raising their 
own esteem by depreciating other men, he, on 
the contrary, was the most obliging man that 
ever practised. If a young gentleman happened 
to be retained to argue a point in law, where 
he was on the contrary side, he would very 
often mend the objections when he came to 
repeat them, and always commend the gentle- 
man if there were room for it ; and one good 
word of his was of more advantage to a young 
man than all the favour of the court could 
be." 

Having thus far pursued his history and 
character in the public and exemplary parts of 
his life, without interrupting the thread of the 
9 



94 MATTHEW HALE. 

relation with what was private and domestic, I 
shall conclude with a short account of these. 

He was twice married ; his first wife was 
Anne, daughter of Sir Henry Moore, of Faly 
in Berkshire, grandchild to Sir Francis Moore, 
sergeant at law. By her he had ten children • 
the four first died young, the other sIk lived to 
be all married ; and he outlived them all, ex-* 
cept his eldest daughter and his youngest son, 
who survived him. 

Respecting his books in manuscrij)t, he order- 
ed by a codicil, " that if any book of his writing,, 
as well touching the common law as other sub-' 
jects, should be printed ; then, what should be 
given for the consideration of the copy, should 
be divided into ten shares, of which he appointed 
seven to go among his servants, and three to 
those who had copied them out and were to 
look after the impression." 

Thus lived and died Sir Matthew Hale, the 
renowned Lord Chief Justice of England. He 
had one of the blessings of virtue in the highest 
measure of any of the age, that does not always 
follow it, which was, that he was universally 
much valued and admired by men of all parties 
and persuasions. For as none could hate him 
but for his justice and virtues, so the great esti- 
mation he was generally in, caused, that few 
durst undertake to defend so ungrateful a para- 
dox, as any thing said to lessen him would have 
appeared to be. His name is scarcely ever 
mentioned since his death, without particular 
accents of singular respect. His opinion in 
points of law generally passes as an uncontrolla- 



MATTHEW HALE. 95 

ble authority, and is often pleaded in all the 
courts of justice. And all that knew him well, 
do still speak of him as one of the most perfect 
patterns of religion and virtue they ever saw. 

The commendations given him by all sorts 
of people are such, that I can hardly come 
under the censures of this age for any thing I 
have said concerning him ; yet if this book lives 
to after times, it will be looked on perhaps as a 
picture, drawn more according to fancy and 
invention, than after the life, if it were not that 
those who knew him well, establishing its credit 
in the present age, will make it pass down to 
the next with a clearer authority. 

I shall pursue his praise no further in my 
own words, but shall add what the present lord 
chancellor of England, Sir Heneage Finch, said 
concerning him, when he delivered the com- 
mission to Lord Chief Justice Rainsford, who 
succeeded him in that office, which he began 
in this manner : 

" The vacancy of the seat of the Chief Justice 
of this court, and that by a way and means so 
unusual as the resignation of him that lately 
held it, and this too proceeding from so deplora- 
ble a cause as the infirmity of that body which 
began to forsake the ablest mind that ever pre- 
sided here, hath filled the kingdom with lamen- 
tations, and given the King many and pensive 
thoughts how to supply that vacancy again." 
And a little after, speaking to his successor, he 
said, " The very labours of the place, and that 
weight and fatigue of business which attends it, 
are no small discouragements ; for what shoulders 
may not justly fear that burthen which made 



96 MATTHEW HALE, 

him stoop that went before you ? Yet I confess 
you liave a greater discouragement than the 
mere burtiien of your place, and that is, the 
inimital)le example of your last predecessor : 
* It is burdensome to succeed a good chief,' was 
the saying of him in the panegyric ; and you will 
find it so too that now are to succeed such a 
Chief Justice, of so indefatigable an industry, so 
invincible a patience, so exemplary an integrity, 
and so magnanimous a contempt of worldly 
things, without which no man can be truly 
great ; add to all this, a man that was so abso- 
lute a master of the science of the law, and even 
of the most abstruse and hidden parts of it, that 
one may truly say of his knowledge in the law, 
what St. Austin said of St. Hierom's knowledge 
in divinity, ' What St. Hierom was ignorant of, 
no man ever knew.' And therefore the 
King would not suffer himself to part with so 
great a man, till he had placed upon him all 
the marks of bounty and esteem which his 
retired and weak condition was capable of." 

To this high character, in which the expres- 
sions, as they well become the eloquence of 
him who yjronounced them, so they do agree 
exactly to the subject, without the abatements 
that are often to be made for rhetoric, I shall 
add that part of the lord chief justice's answer, 
in which he speaks of his predecessor, 

" A person in whom his eminent virtues and 
deep learning have long managed a contest for 
the superiority, which is not decided to this 
day, nor will it ever be determined, I suppose, 
which shall get the upper hand. A person that 
l)as sat in this court these many years, of whose 



MATTHEW HALE. 97 

actions there I have been an eye and ear wit- 
ness, that by the greatness of his learning always 
charmed his auditors to reverence and attention: 
a person, of whom I think I may boldly say, 
that as former times cannot show any superior 
to him, so I am confident succeeding and future 
time will never show any equal. These consid- 
erations, heightened by what I have heard from 
your Lordship concerning him, made me anxious 
and doubtful, and put me to a stand how I 
should succeed so able, so good, and so great a 
man. It doth very much trouble me that I, 
who in comparison of him am but like a candle 
lighted in the sunshine, or like a glowworm at 
mid-day, should succeed so great a person, that 
is and will be so eminently famous to all poster- 
ity ; and I must ever wear this motto in my 
breast to comfort me, and in my actions to 
excuse me — 

'It is burdensome to succeed a good chief.' 

Thus were panegyrics made upon him while 
yet alive, in that same court of justice which he 
had so worthily governed. As he was honoured 
while he lived, so he was much lamented when 
he died ; and this will still be acknowledged as 
a just inscription for his memory, though his 
modesty forbade any such to be put on his 
tomb-stone : 

THAT HE WAS ONE OF THE GREATEST PATTERNS 
THIS AGE HAS AFFORDED, WHETHER IN HIS PRI- 
VATE DEPORTMENT AS A CHRISTIA5I, OR IN HIS 
PUBLIC EMPLOYMENT, EITHER AT THE BAR OR ON 
THE BENCH. 

9* 



REV. RICHARD BAXTER'S 

RECOLLECTIONS 
OF 

SIR MATTHEW HALE. 



Since the history of Judge Hale's Hfe is 
published, written by Dr. Burnet, some men 
have thought, that because my familiarity with 
him was known, and the last time of a man's 
life is supposed to contain his maturest judg- 
ment, time, study, and experience correcting 
former oversights ; the notice that I had of him 
in the latter years of his life should not be 
omitted. 

I was never acquainted with him till 1667, 
and therefore have nothing to say of the former 
part of his life ; nor of the latter, as to any public 
affairs, but only of what our familiar converse 
acquainted me : but the visible effects made me 
wonder at the industry and unwearied labours 
of his former life. He was so set on study, that 
he resolvedly avoided all necessary diversions, 
and so little valued either grandeur, wealth, or 
any worldly vanity, that he avoided them to that 
notable degree, which incompetent judges took 



Matthew hale. 99 

to be an excess. His habit was so coarse and 
plain, that I, who am thought guilty of a culpa- 
ble neglect therein, have been bold to desire 
him to lay by some things which seemed too 
homely. The house which I surrendered to 
him, and wherein he lived at Acton, was indeed 
well situated, but very small, and so far below 
the ordinary dwellings of men of his rank, as 
that divers farmers thereabouts had better ; but 
it pleased him. His housekeeping was accord- 
ing to the rest, like his estate and mind, but 
not like his place and honour : for he resolved 
never to grasp at riches, nor take great fees, 
but would refuse what many others thought too 
little. I wondered when he told me how small 
his estate was, after such ways of getting as 
were before him : but as he had little, and de- 
sired little, so he was content with little, and 
suited his dwelling, table, and retinue thereto. 
He greatly shunned the visits of great persons, 
that came not to him on necessary business, 
because all his hours were precious to him, 
and therefore he contrived the avoiding of them, 
and the free enjoyment of his beloved privacy. 
I must with a glad remembrance acknowledge, 
that while we were so unsuitable in places and 
worth, yet some suitableness of judgment and 
disposition made our frequent converse pleasing 
to us both. The last time but one, that I was 
at his house, he made me lodge there, and in 
the morning inviting me to more frequent visits, 
said, no man shall be more welcome ; and he 
was no dissembler. To signify his love, he put 



100 MATTHEW HALE. 

my name as a legatee in his wiiJ, bequeathing 
me forty shillings, 

God made him a public good, which is more 
than to get riches. His great judgment and 
known integrity commanded respect from those 
that knew him ; so that I verily think, that no 
one subject since the days that history hath 
notified the affairs of England to us, went off 
the stage with greater and more universal love 
and honour. 

His resolution for justice was so great, that I 
am persuaded, that no wealth nor honour would 
have hired him knowingly to do one unjust act. 
And though lie left us in sorrow, I cannot but 
acknowledge it a great mercy to him, to be taken 
away when he was. Alas ! what would the 
good man have done, if he had been put by 
plotters, and traitors, and swearers, and per- 
jurers, upon all that his successors have been 
put to ? In likelihood, even all his great wis- 
dom and sincerity could never have got him 
through such a wilderness of thorns, and briars, 
and wild beasts, without tearing in pieces his 
entire reputation, if he had never so well secured 
his conscience. O ! how seasonably did he 
avoid the tempest and go to Christ. 

Though some mistook this man for a mere 
philosopher or humanist, that knew him not 
within ; yet his most serious description of the 
sufferings of Christ, and his copious volumes to 
prove the truth of the Scripture, Christianity, 
our immortality, and the Deity, do prove so 
much reality in his faith and devotion, as makes 
us past doubt of his reward and glory. When 



MATTHEW HALE. 101 

he found his breath and strength much abate, 
and his face and flesh decay, he cheerfully re- 
ceived the sentence of death ; and he told me 
he was prepared and contented comfortably to 
receive his change. 

My acquaintance with him was not long : 
and I looked on him as an excellent person 
studied in his own way. We were often together, 
and almost all our discourse was philosophical, 
and especially about the nature of spirits and 
superior regions ; and the nature, operations, 
and immortality of man's soul. And our dis- 
position and course of thoughts were in such 
things so like, that I did not much cross the 
bent of his conference. He studied physics, 
and got all new or old books of philosophy that 
he could meet with, as eagerly as if he had been 
a boy at the University. Mathematics he stud- 
ied more than I did, it being a knowledge which 
he much more esteemed than I did ; who valued 
all knowledge by the greatness of the benefit, 
and necessity of the use ; and my unskilfulness 
in them, I acknowledge was my great defect, in 
which he much excelled. 

Whenever we were together, he was the 
spring of our discourse, as choosing the subject ; 
and most of it still was of the nature of spirits, 
and the immortality, state, and operations of 
separated souls. We both were conscious of 
human darkness, and how much of our under- 
standings, quiet in such matters, must be fetched 
from our implicit trust in the goodness and 
promises of God, rather than from a clear and 
satisfying conception of the mode of separated 



102 MATtHEW HALE. 

souls' operations; and how great use we have 
herein of our faith in Jesus Christ, as he is the 
undertaker, mediator, the Lord and lover of 
souls, and the acturd possessor of that glory. 
But yet we thouglit, that it greatly concerned 
us, to search as far as God allowed us, into a 
matter of so great moment ; and that even little 
and obscure prospects into the heavenly state, 
are more excellent than much and applauded 
knowledge of transitory things. 

He was much in urging difficulties and objec- 
tions ; but you couid not tell by them what was 
his own judgment : for when he was able to 
answer them himself, he would draw out anoth- 
er's answer. 

He was but of a slow speech, and sometimes 
so hesitating, that a stranger would have thought 
him a man of low parts, that knew not readily 
wiiat to say, though ready at other times. But 
I never saw Cicero's doctrine de Oratore more 
verified in any man, that furnishing the mind 
with all sorts of knowledge is the chief thing to 
make an excellent orator ; for when there is 
abundance and clearness of knowledge in the 
mind, it will furnish even a slow tongue to speak 
that which by its congruence and verity shall 
prevail. Such a one never wants moving matter, 
nor an answer to vain objectors. 

The manner of our converse was as suitable 
to my inclination as the matter. I do not re^ 
member that ever he and I did interrupt each 
other in any discourse. His wisdom and ac- 
customed patience caused him still to stay for 
the end. 



MATTHEW HALE. 103 

He was much for coming to philosophical 
knowledge by the help of experiments : but he 
thought that our new philosophers, as some 
call the Cartesian.s, had taken up many fallacies 
as experiments, and had made as unhappy a 
use of their trials, as many empyricks and 
mountebanks do in medicine. 

As to his judgment about religion ; our 
discourse was very sparing about controversies. 
He thought not fit to begin with me about 
them, nor I with him : and as it was in me, so 
it seemed to be in him, from a conceit that we 
Were not fit to pretend to add much to one 
Jinother. 

I must say that he was of opinion, that the 
Wealth and honour of the bishops was convenient, 
to enable them the better to relieve the poor, 
and rescue the inferior clergy from oppression, 
and to keep up the honour of religion in the 
world. But all this on supposition, that it would 
be in the hands of wise and good men, or else 
it would do as much harm. But when I asked 
him, whether great wealth and honour would 
not be most earnestly desired and sought by the 
worst of men, while good men would not seek 
them T And whether he that was the only 
fervent seeker, was not likeliest to obtain, except 
under some rare extraordinary prince 1 And 
so, whether it was not like to entail the office on 
the worst, and to arm Christ's enemies against 
him to the end of the world, which a provision 
that had neither alluring nor much discouraging 
temptation might prevent, he gave me no answer. 
I have heard some say, if the Pope were a good 



.l(T4 MATTHEW HALE. 

man, what a deal of good might he do! Bui 
have Popes therefore blest the world ? 

I can say truly, that he greatly lamented the 
negligence^ and ill lives, and violence of some 
of the clergy ; and would often say, What have 
they their calling, honour and maintenance for, 
but to seek the instructing and saving of men's 
souls? 

He much lamented that so many worthy 
ministers were silenced, the church weakened, 
papists strengthened, the cause of love and piety 
greatly wronged and hindered by differences 
about conformity. 

I had but one fear or suspicion concerning 
him, which since, I am assured was groundless : 
I was afraid lest he had been too little for the 
practical part of religion, as to the working of 
the soul towards God, in prayer, meditation, &e. 
because he seldom spoke to me of such subjects, 
nor of practical books, or sermons ; but was 
still speaking of philosophy, or of spirits, souls, 
the future state, and the nature of God. But 
at last I understood that his averseness to 
hypocrisy made him purposely conceal the most 
of such of his practical thoughts and works, as 
the world now findeth by his contemplations 
and other writings. 

He told me once, how God brought him to a 
fixed honour and observation of the Lord's day: 
that when he was young, being in the west, the 
sickness or death of some relation at London, 
made some matter of estate to become his con- 
cernment ; which required his hastening to 
London from the west : and he was commanded 



MATTHEW HALE. 105 

to travel on the Lord's day ; but I cannot well 
remember how many cross accidents befel him 
in his journey. One horse fell lame, another 
died, and much more ; which struck him with 
such sense of divine rebuke, as he never forgot. 
When I went out of the house, in which he 
succeeded me, I went into a greater, over 
against the church door. The town having 
great need of help for their souls, I preached 
between the public sermons in my house, taking 
the people with me to the church, to common 
prayer and sermon, morning and evening. The 
judge told me that he thought my course did 
the church much service ; and would carry it 
so respectfully to me at my door, that all the 
people might perceive his approbation. But 
Dr. Reeves could not bear it, but complained 
against me ; and the Bishop of London caused 
one Mr. Rosse, of Brainford, and Mr. Philips, 
two justices of the peace, to send their warrants 
to apprehend me. I told the Judge of the war- 
rant, but asked him no counsel, and he gave 
me none ; but with tears showed his sorrow : 
the only time that ever I saw him weep. So I 
was sent to the common gaol for six months, by 
these two justices, by the procurement of the 
said Dr. Reeves, his majesty's chaplain, dean 
of Wolverhampton, parson of Horseley, and 
parson of Acton. When I came to move for 
my release upon a habeas corpus, by the counsel 
of my great friend Sergeant Fountain, I found 
that the character which Judge Hale had given 
of me, stood me in some stead ; and every one 
of the four judges of the common pleas, did not 
10 



106 MATTHEW HALE. 

only acquit me, but said more for me than my 
counsel. 

And indeed Judge Hale would tell me, that 
Bishop Usher was much prejudiced against 
lawyers, because the worst causes find their 
advocates; but that he and Mr. Selden had 
convinced him of the reasons of it, to his satis- 
faction : and that he did by acquaintance with 
them, believe that there were as many honest 
men among lawyers, proportionably, as among 
any profession of men in England, not excepting 
bishops or divines. 

And I must needs say, that the improvement 
of reason, the diverting men from sensuality and 
idleness, the maintaining of propriety and jus- 
tice, and consequently the peace and welfare of 
the kingdom, are very much to be ascribed to 
the judges and lawyers. 

But this imprisonment brought me the great 
loss of converse with Judge Hale : for the par- 
liament in the next act against conventicles, 
put into it divers clauses, suited to my case ; by 
which I was obliged to go dwell in another 
county, and to forsake both London and my 
former habitation ; and yet the justices of 
another county were partly enabled to pursue me. 

Before I went, the judge had put into my 
hand four volumes in folio, which he had written, 
to prove the being and providence of God, the 
immortality of the soul, and life to come, the 
truth of Christianity, and of every book of the 
Scripture by itself, besides the common proofs 
of the whole. Three of the four volumes I had 
read over, and was sent to the gaol before I 



MATTHEW HALE. 107 

read the fourth. I turned down a few leaves 
for some small anin.adversions, but had no time 
to give tliem to him. 1 could not then persuade 
him to review them for the press. The 
only fault I found with them of any moment, 
was thei'- ^reat copiousness. 

V/nen he had striven awhile under his dis- 
ease, he gave up his place, not so much from 
the apprehension of the nearness of his death, 
for he could have died comfortably in his public 
work, but from the sense of his disability to 
discharge his part : but he ceased not his stud- 
ies, and that upon points which I could have 
wished him to let go, being confident that he 
was not far from his end. 

I sent him a book which I newly published, 
for reconciling the controversies about predes- 
tination, grace, and free-will, but desired him not 
to bestow too much of his precious time upon it : 
but, before he left his place, I found him at it 
so often, that I took the boldness to tell him, that 
I thought more practical writings were more 
suitable to his case, who was going from this 
contentious world. He gave me but little 
answer ; but I after found that he plied practi- 
cals and contemplatives in their season ; which 
he never thought meet to give me any account 
of Only in general he oft told me, that the 
reason and season of his writings against Athe- 
ism, &c. aforesaid, were, both in his circuit at 
home, he used to set apart some time for medi- 
tation, especially after the evening public wor- 
ship every Lord's day. 

Notwithstanding his own great furniture of 



108 MATTHEW HALE. 

knowledge, and he was accounted somewhat 
tenacious of his conceptions, yet I must say, 
that I remember not that ever 1 conversed witli 
a man that was more ready to receive and learn. 
He would hear patiently, and recollect all dis- 
tinctly, and then try it judiciously, not disdaining 
to learn of an inferior in some things, who in 
more had need to learn of him. I never more 
perceived in any man, hov*' much do great know- 
ledge and wisdom facilitate additions, and the 
reception of any thing not before known. Such 
a one presently perceiveth that evidence which 
another is incapable of. 

The last time but one that I saw him, in his 
weakness at Acton, he engaged me to explicate 
the doctrine of divine government and decree, 
as consistent with the sin of man. And when 
I had distinctly told him, 1. What God did, as 
the author of nature, physically ; 2. What he 
did as legislator, morally ; and S. What he did, 
as benefactor, and by special grace ; 4. And 
where permission came in, and where actual 
operations ; 5. And so, how certainly God 
might cause the effects, and not cause the voli- 
tions, as determinate to evil, — though the 
volition and effect being called by one name, as 
theft, murder, adultery lying, &c., oft deceive 
men, — he took up all that I had said in order, 
and distinctly twice over repeated each part in 
its proper j)lace, and with its reason : and when 
he had done, said, that I had given him satis- 
faction. 

Before I knew what he did himself in contem- 
plationsj I took it not well that he more than 



MATTHEW HALE. 109 

f^nce told me, *• Mr. Baxter, I am move beliolden 
to you than you are aware of; and I thank you 
for all, but especially for your scheme, and 
your catholic theology." For I was sorry, that 
a man that I thought so near death, should 
spend much of his time on such controversies, 
though tending to end them. But he continued 
after, near a year, and had leisure for contem- 
plations which 1 knew not of. 

When I parted with him, I doubted which 
of us would be first in heaven : but he is gone 
before, and I am at the door, and somewhat the 
willinger to go, when I think such souls as his 
are there. 

When he was gone to Gloucestershire, and 
his contemplations were published, I sent 
him the confession of my censures of him, 
how I had feared that he had allowed too great 
a share of his time and thoughts to speculation, 
and too little to practicals, l3ut rejoiced to see 
the conviction of my error : and he returned 
me a very kind letter, which was the last. 

Whenever the discourse came up to the 
faultiness of any individuals, he would be 
silent : but the sorts of faulty persons he would 
blame with freedom, especially idle, proud, scan- 
dalous, contentious, and factious clerg}'men. 
We agreed in nothing more than that which he 
oft repeated in the papers which you gave me, 
and which he often expressed, viz. that true 
religion consisteth in great, plain, necessary 
things, the life of faith and hope, the love of 
God and man, an humble, self-denying mind, 
with mortification of worldly alTection, carnal 



110 MATTHEW HALE. 

lust, &c. And that the calamity of the churclj^ 
and withering of religion, hath come from proud 
and busy men's additions, that cannot give peace 
to themselves and others, by living in love and 
quietness on this Christian simplicity of faith 
and practice, but vex and turmoil the church 
with these needless and hurtful superfluities ; 
some by their decisions of words, or unnecessary 
controversies ; and some by their restless reach- 
ing after their own worldly interest, and cor- 
rupting the church, on pretence of raising and 
defending it ; some by their needless ceremo- 
nies, and some by their superstitious and cause- 
less scruples. But he was especially angry at 
them that would so manage their differences 
about such things, as to show, that they had a 
greater zeal for their own additions, than for 
the common saving truths and duties which we 
were all agreed in ; and who did so manage 
their several little and selfish causes, as wounded 
or injured the common cause of the Christian 
and reformed churches. 

His main desire was, that as men should not 
be peevishly quarrelsome against any lawful 
circumstances, forms, or orders in religion, 
much less think themselves godly men, because 
they can fly from other men's circumstances, 
or settled lawful orders as sin ; so especially, 
that no human additions of opinion, order, 
modes, ceremonies, professions, or promises, 
should ever be managed to the hindering of 
Christian love and peace, nor of the preaching 
of the gospel, nor the wrong of our common 
cause, or the strengthening of atheism, infidel- 



MATTHEW HALE. Ill 

ity, profaneness, or Popery ; bat that Christian 
verity and piety, the love of God and man, and 
a good life, and our common peace in these, 
might be first resolved on and secured, and all 
our additions might be used, but in due subor- 
dination to these, and not to the injury of any of 
them ; nor sects, parties, or narrow interests be 
set up against the common duty, and the public 
interest and peace. 

He was much against the corrupting of the 
Christian religion, whose simplicity and purity 
he justly took to be much of its excellency, by 
men's busy additions, by wit, policy, ambition, 
or any thing else which sophisticateth it, and 
maketh it another thing, and causeth the lamen- 
table contentions of the world. 

What he was as a lawyer, a Judge, a Christian, 
is so well known, that I think for me to pretend 
that my testimony is of any use, were vain. I 
will only tell you what I have written by his 
picture, in the front of the great Bible which I 
bought with his legacy, in memory of his love 
and name, viz. 

" Sir Matthew Hale, that unwearied student, 
that prudent man, that solid philoso})her, that 
famous lawyer, that pillar and basis of justice, 
who would not have done an unjust act for any 
worldly price or motive, the ornament of his 
majesty's government, and honour of England ; 
the highest faculty of the soul of Westminster- 
hall, and pattern to all the reverend and honora- 
ble Judges ; that godly, serious, practical Chris- 
tian, the lover of goodness and all good men ; a 



:^ 



112 MATTHEW HALE. 

larnenter of the clergy's selfishnes5=, and im- 
faithfulness, and discord, and of the sad divis- 
ions following hereupon ; an earnest desire'- of 
their reformation, concord, and the church's 
peace, and of a reformed act of uniformity, as 
the best and necessary means thereto ; tnat 
great contemner of the riches, pomp and vanity 
of the world ; that pattern of honest plainness 
and humility, who, while he fled from the honours 
that pursued him, was yet Lord Chief Justice of 
the king's bench, after his being long Lord Chief 
Baron of the exchequer ; living and dying, 
entering on, using, and voluntarily surrendering 
his place of judicature, with the most universal 
love, and honour, and praise, that ever did 
English subject in this age, or any that just 
history doth acquaint us with, &c. This man, 
so wise, so good, so great, bequeathing mo in 
his testament the legacy of forty shillings, 
merely as a testimony of his respect and love,, I 
thought this book, the testament of Christ, the 
meetest purchase by that price, to remain in 
memorial of the faithful love, which he bare and 
long expressed to his inferior and unvvorthy, 
but honouring friend, who thought to have been 
with Christ before him, and waiteth for the d;^y 
of his perfect conjunction with the spirits of the 
just made perfect." 

Richard Baxter. 



L6Je?9 




